Fairness - The Commentary

“I just figure that when I’m that age Social Security and Medicare will be gone.” That’s what one of my students said to me after a class lecture on early Chinese religious thinkers and their views on human nature and government’s role in people’s lives. “Why doesn’t that get you so angry?” I asked. “My generation is having the party, and yours is getting stuck with our bill.” “If I thought that, I’d burn down every radio station that played Oldies,” I joked to lighten the mood with hyperbole. I certainly understood why this 20-year-old had given up. Most of the messages around inspire a hopelessness and helplessness. There’s the “all politicians are crooked (or no good, or just out for themselves)." There are the constant media attempts to claim a false equivalency between “both sides.” There are the messages that voting doesn’t matter in the midst of Republican moves to suppress voting and corporate PACS like ALEC investing millions in their candidates because they know voting