AN APOLOGY

In "AN APOLOGY TO YOUNGER AMERICANS", Sam Smith lists many of the customs and behaviors developed by the bay boom generation, or the "generation as consisting of anyone who reached 40 after Watergate and who was at least 40 on September 11, 2001". Here are a few of his apologies:

I apologize for Bopal and Three Mile Island and, in advance, for all the biological, chemical or nuclear disasters that will occur thanks to economic rapaciousness and without the slightest help from a terrorist. I am profoundly embarrassed by the way we destroyed the public school system of our country. I regret that we got the Muslim world so mad at us and that we couldn't come up with any better solution than to get it madder. I apologize for any inconvenience, such as prison time, that may have occurred as a result of criminalizing the use of marijuana while keeping legal the far more dangerous drugs we enjoyed such as vodka and Marlboros. I would like to say how sad I am about your increased likelihood of getting skin cancer because of the environmental changes we created in the atmosphere. I apologize for managerial revolutions, mission statements, synergy, cutting edges, proactive and world class entrepreneurs, strategic planning, bottom lines, and exit interviews. I am truly sorry we could make no greater contribution to philosophy than the justification of greed in the guise of free market economics, the sanctification of imperialism in the name of nation building, and the notion that it takes only 12 steps to solve all your problems. I regret that you are now regarded as a potential terrorist, addict, or sexual predator more often than you are considered a valued citizen. I am truly sorry for what we have done to childhood, including over-scheduling it, replacing Kermit with Barney, teaching children excessive fear and absurd competitiveness, diagnosing them into drug dependency, and punishing them for drawing 'inappropriate' pictures in the margins of their textbooks.

Thanks to ddjango for the lead.

Mr Smith also tells us how the candidates should be handling the hateful rhetoric spewing from the Neocon Right.