Dearest Jesse and Rachael,

You kids, your brothers, sisters, and your New York cousins mean the world to your grandmother and me.

We adore you all, and want more than anything for you to succeed in your life choices.

As Americans, your opportunities for happiness are unlimited.

At least they used to be.

My generation has made of mess of things.

So I write this to apologize for the America we now pass on to you, and to give you some guidance on how to undo our mistakes, giving your grandchildren a country that truly supports peace, justice, and opportunity for all.

As you grow up, study well the world's history. You'll learn that the world in which your grandmother and I were raised was a more caring place. Few of us had much money, but jobs were plentiful. Most of us owned our own homes. Moms weren't forced to work outside the house; raising the kids was job enough.

We had little crime. It sounds odd today, but most all of us honestly cared about one another. If our neighbor got down on her luck, everyone pitched in to help out for we knew she'd do the same for us.

Back then we believed in our government. Government agencies actually protected us from bad food, bad medicine, bad working conditions, even bad air.

What happened?

BLINDED BY GREED

Well, we got greedy. As we acquired stuff, that stuff became more important than people, more important than even the quality of air we breathed and water we drank.

We forgot that our world is only borrowed from your generation, Rachael and Jesse, and is not ours to plunder.

Finally, we denied a birthright, an obligation embedded deep in our hearts when we were your age: to be fair with one another and the rest of the world.

Somewhere along the way, our government got greedy too. Today, our lawmakers in Washington and Madison often take money in return for laws favoring narrow interests, laws that frequently hurt folks like us.

Have you learned in civics class that only about half of us bother to vote anymore? It's easy to understand why.

How many of those so-called representatives of ours were voted out of office last election?

None! That's because elections are no longer fair. Politicians have rigged them so they can't lose. Robbed of the power to rid ourselves of those elected to represent us yet who vote against our interests, we the people have no real say. Today, in place of a democracy where citizens rule, money flows from rich donors ensuring that politicians pass laws making the wealthy wealthier at others' expense.

For example, imagine a class with 500 students. Your teacher takes money from everyone, then gives more than half the collection to just one student, the richest one. And who gets almost all the rest? The 22 next wealthiest students.

Is that fair? Yet that's what government is doing today. They call it "tax reform."

Worse, that money is needed now. So government gives to the rich with one hand, and borrows with the other. And who eventually pays this trillion-dollar debt? You, your brothers and sisters and cousins!

Yes, my generation has made a mess of it. But here's something you can do about it.

First, know that this great country of ours is indeed yours, not the government's, not the corporations'. Yours! That includes our natural resources, schools, armies, treasury, police, airwaves, and laws.

There comes a time when citizens must claim what's rightly theirs.

Read "The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies." That was such a time.

Then read the US Constitution. It begins with these words:

© 2005 — Frank Kaiser

TO SEE SOME OF THE EARLY READER RESPONSES TO THIS, CLICK HERE.