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6 November 12 - 18, 2008 l Planet Jackson Hole l www.PlanetJH.com updated daily
Generations, ideals collide with new president-elect
Last Tuesday saw the triumph of first presidential candidate
sponsored by Generation We over the last-ever candidate
from the Greatest Generation.
Okay, Sen. Obama is really a younger member of the Baby
Boomer Generation, but the voters who got him elected were
the young folks who call themselves Millennials or
Generation We.
Check out the video of these young folks at www.genwe.com.
It may curl your gray hair.
Such idealism. And perhaps, such naiveté, it could be said.
Gosh, I can sort of remember what it felt like to be an idealist.
It was a long time ago. But those were good feelings and
great memories.
So what can we expect from this new president?
With courage and timing, the president-elect and Congress
have inadvertently been handed the mealticket they have
been looking for to rebuild the country. They could do this by
capitalizing on the rapidly declining gasoline prices.
It is still hard to believe that people paid $1.95 per gallon
this week in Casper for unleaded regular gasoline.
Americans four months ago would have done a back flip if
someone could have promised them they could peg gas prices
even as low as $2.95 per gallon.
So, my suggestion is that if they had the courage, Sen.
Obama and the Democrat Congress could impose a heinous
$1 per gallon gas tax and then somehow put controls on gas
prices to keep them in the under $3 range. If they did this, it
could help give them the money they need to rebuild the
country in the image they are proposing.
Everyone assumed that their idealistic plans and programs
would have to be postponed
because there was no money left
Historians
after the bank bailouts and the
will mark this
huge federal programs. Projects
like universal health insurance, election in
expanded education opportunities much bigger
and worker-retraining programs ways than
would have to wait until the money
gasoline
was there.
But the plunge in gasoline prices
prices.
gives them an opportunity that I
personally would dread. Proponents would say that another
benefit of high gas prices would be to promote conservation
and facilitate the demise of the gas-guzzler.
Am I advocating such a tax? No, it will not be good for
Wyoming. But for the sake of the kind of country they want
to build, well, the opportunity has come knocking on their
doors.
Only in America
OPINION by BILL SNIFFIN
Historians will mark this election in much bigger ways than
gasoline prices, though. Sen. Obama’s election is a true
example of The American Dream – that anyone can grow up
and be anything he or she aspires to be in our great country.
No president in our history has come as far as Sen. Obama.
It makes me proud of our country.
Perhaps Sen. Obama said it best: “For as long as I live, I
will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story
even possible.”
Am I worried about our country with him at the helm?
Heck yes, but he IS our new president. No doubt it will be a
very interesting ride.
According to the Gen-We website, the following is how this
big group of folks describes themselves:
“Millennials are the largest generation in American history.
Born between 1978 and 2000, they are 95 million strong,
compared to 78 million Baby Boomers.
“They are independent—politically, socially, and philosophically—and
they are spearheading a period of sweeping
change in America and around the world.”
As a group, these folks tend to believe they are inheriting a
world much worse than the world inherited by their parents.
But despite this, they tend to be an optimistic lot.
It’s all in the video. Pretty impressive.PJH
Check out Bill Sniffin’s columns and blogs at www.billsniffin.com. He is a longtime Wyoming journalist from Lander who has two books that are available at fine bookstores.