I was born during the Eisenhower Administration.
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, in fact. So long ago that few have any notion of who he was. [He was the 34th president of the U.S., the one who served BEFORE John F. Kennedy.]
Ike was also a five-star general. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
Just for some perspective, Ike was sworn in as president in 1953, the same year of the public coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. She had actually become the British sovereign the year before, following the death of her father, King George VI. The public coronation was delayed because it was viewed as unseemly to celebrate her ascension to the crown until after a suitable time of mourning for the late king.
Queen Elizabeth is now the longest serving monarch in the history of the Commonwealth.
Interestingly, the coronation of the Queen was the first ever to be televised (although the then BBC Television Service had covered part of the procession from Westminster Abbey after her father's coronation in 1937), and was also the world's first major international event to be broadcast.
Queen Elizabeth was crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher. The crowd shouted "God save the Queen!" at the exact moment St. Edward's Crown touched the new monarch's head. The princes and peers gathered then put on their own coronets, and a 21-gun salute was fired from the Tower of London.
In a moment impossible to be scripted, at the very moment when the crown was lowered onto her head, the televised event went from glorious black-and-white to color — and the technological world has never been the same since.
Why have I gone through this tedious history lesson? Because it is important for readers to gain an understanding of my own perspective, that I am in fact, older than dirt. Also, I have deliberately launched this blog on the week of another highly anticipated British royal event — the wedding of Prince William to the "commoner" Kate Middleton.
For me, the past, present and future are colliding. The conservative Queen Elizabeth, always in a hat and gloves, turned 85 last week. She handed out money to well-wishers on the street in a long-standing tradition, while the soon-to-be Princess Kate went into an upscale boutique to buy lingerie — while a bevy (or, is it a gaggle?) of cameras openly recorded her selections from outside the shop through its windows. The old order and the new.
Today's world is just short of incomprehensible to me. It is a place where visions of the Apocalypse have seamlessly merged with our everyday lives. Cell phones allow users to video up women's skirts, and to play violent, hate-filled video games while earning carpal tunnel of the thumbs. The coarser the better; intolerance is the new norm; eating disorders have exploded; and politics have truly become a blood sport. Incivility is seen as a badge of honor; and more Americans now believe that the best and most prosperous days are behind the country than at any time since surveys have been conducted.
In my world, each new generation was a bridge to the old. It was a gradual procession of change that left a certain measure of understanding and relate-ability to each group. There was always a generation gap, but if you chose to and made the effort, you could actually see across it. No more. Now that gap is a divide so deep and wide that it almost feels like we live on completely different planets. There are few shared standards, values, faiths, languages, goals, entertainments, or even foods that have been carried on from my generation to this one.
I honestly feel like an alien in my own land. Oddly, I have more in common with my father's and even grandfather's generations than I do with this one. We have lost our national kinship. The customer is no longer always right; women are welcoming being seen as sexual objects; cruelty and even brutality against children and adults is ignored; lies are laughed at and often admired; celebrities are god-like; and materialism has become the only measure
of success. We are quickly becoming a country with no soul.
This almost total disconnect I feel with the present causes a pain so profound that I have no words to express it. This month, two soap operas that have aired for more than 40 years were cancelled. So-called "scripted" entertainment is losing ground fast to "reality" TV, that glorifies obnoxious, disgusting and shallow behavior, and showers fame and conspicuous wealth on
illiterate, high-school drop outs.
It is a momentous challenge for me to find my way now. To find meaning in the madness. Like a blind woman, I grope around the cold technology, and equally cold hearts that crowd around me. This blog is dedicated to my journey — and no, I fear GPS navigation won't be any help.
— E
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, in fact. So long ago that few have any notion of who he was. [He was the 34th president of the U.S., the one who served BEFORE John F. Kennedy.]
Ike was also a five-star general. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
Just for some perspective, Ike was sworn in as president in 1953, the same year of the public coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. She had actually become the British sovereign the year before, following the death of her father, King George VI. The public coronation was delayed because it was viewed as unseemly to celebrate her ascension to the crown until after a suitable time of mourning for the late king.
Queen Elizabeth is now the longest serving monarch in the history of the Commonwealth.
Interestingly, the coronation of the Queen was the first ever to be televised (although the then BBC Television Service had covered part of the procession from Westminster Abbey after her father's coronation in 1937), and was also the world's first major international event to be broadcast.
Queen Elizabeth was crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher. The crowd shouted "God save the Queen!" at the exact moment St. Edward's Crown touched the new monarch's head. The princes and peers gathered then put on their own coronets, and a 21-gun salute was fired from the Tower of London.
In a moment impossible to be scripted, at the very moment when the crown was lowered onto her head, the televised event went from glorious black-and-white to color — and the technological world has never been the same since.
Why have I gone through this tedious history lesson? Because it is important for readers to gain an understanding of my own perspective, that I am in fact, older than dirt. Also, I have deliberately launched this blog on the week of another highly anticipated British royal event — the wedding of Prince William to the "commoner" Kate Middleton.
For me, the past, present and future are colliding. The conservative Queen Elizabeth, always in a hat and gloves, turned 85 last week. She handed out money to well-wishers on the street in a long-standing tradition, while the soon-to-be Princess Kate went into an upscale boutique to buy lingerie — while a bevy (or, is it a gaggle?) of cameras openly recorded her selections from outside the shop through its windows. The old order and the new.
Today's world is just short of incomprehensible to me. It is a place where visions of the Apocalypse have seamlessly merged with our everyday lives. Cell phones allow users to video up women's skirts, and to play violent, hate-filled video games while earning carpal tunnel of the thumbs. The coarser the better; intolerance is the new norm; eating disorders have exploded; and politics have truly become a blood sport. Incivility is seen as a badge of honor; and more Americans now believe that the best and most prosperous days are behind the country than at any time since surveys have been conducted.
In my world, each new generation was a bridge to the old. It was a gradual procession of change that left a certain measure of understanding and relate-ability to each group. There was always a generation gap, but if you chose to and made the effort, you could actually see across it. No more. Now that gap is a divide so deep and wide that it almost feels like we live on completely different planets. There are few shared standards, values, faiths, languages, goals, entertainments, or even foods that have been carried on from my generation to this one.
I honestly feel like an alien in my own land. Oddly, I have more in common with my father's and even grandfather's generations than I do with this one. We have lost our national kinship. The customer is no longer always right; women are welcoming being seen as sexual objects; cruelty and even brutality against children and adults is ignored; lies are laughed at and often admired; celebrities are god-like; and materialism has become the only measure
of success. We are quickly becoming a country with no soul.
This almost total disconnect I feel with the present causes a pain so profound that I have no words to express it. This month, two soap operas that have aired for more than 40 years were cancelled. So-called "scripted" entertainment is losing ground fast to "reality" TV, that glorifies obnoxious, disgusting and shallow behavior, and showers fame and conspicuous wealth on
illiterate, high-school drop outs.
It is a momentous challenge for me to find my way now. To find meaning in the madness. Like a blind woman, I grope around the cold technology, and equally cold hearts that crowd around me. This blog is dedicated to my journey — and no, I fear GPS navigation won't be any help.
— E
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