Hope’s 2099
Copyright © 1999 by Dave Badtke
Time Magazine picked Jeffrey Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, as its person of the year. At the threshold of the next millennium, Time selected the evangelical leader of the e-shopping revolution that may change our towns and cities as much as Columbus’s landing changed indigenous tribal life in the Americas.
Julia Butterfly Hill, not selected by Time – possibly not even considered by Time - climbed down after 738 days from Luna, a 180-foot, 1000-year-old redwood tree that she saved for the children of the next millennium.
Six months before Julia climbed to her tree-top perch to demonstrate her stoic commitment to a preservation ideal, Amazon went public. During her windy, dank and cold stay in Luna, Amazon’s stock appreciated almost 2000% on the promise that large warehouses secreted on the internet would feed an ever increasing tax-free, community-free buying frenzy.
Perplexed by the choice of Jeff over Julia, my wife, 19-year-old younger son, 82-year-old mother-in-law and I invited Hope, my son’s granddaughter, who is 53 on December 28, 2099, to sit at our table of breakfast imaginings to help us understand the future.
Hope joins us and great-great-grandmother, my mother-in-law, leans toward her fearing the worst. "Are schools good?" she asks.
"Better than they were 100 years ago," Hope says reassuringly. "But they were much worse before they became better."
Grandfather, my son, winces. "Did standards finally make a difference?"
Hope, who is tall with an ageless look, laughs heartily. "If only life were so simple," she says. "Increased standardization at the beginning of the 21st century led to regimented curricula and testing that drove more and more students to private and home schools. When we needed to capture the spirit of Athens, we focused instead on the discipline of Sparta: We treated education as an endeavor that could be mastered through close-order drills."
"Oh," great-grandmother, my wife, says. "So the public schools eventually disappeared?"
"Almost," Hope says. "As public education declined further, crime, divorce, depression and suicide skyrocketed. In 1999 there were 2 million U.S. prisoners, ¼ of the world’s total. By 2025 the U.S. prison population had tripled and a couple was more likely to win the lottery than stay married for 10 years."
"How terrible!" I say. "Then school vouchers must have helped."
Hope frowns at me and I feel stupid. "We discovered an old truth," she says. "Without public education, there is no public weal. Vouchers made schools into businesses that advertised frequently exaggerated claims, paid high salaries to star teachers, and made special educational deals with famous parents."
"That’s hard to believe?" great-grandmother says. "It seemed like such a good idea."
"Remember," Hope says looking around the table to make sure we are all giving her our undivided attention, "Businesses win through competition, not by promoting the development of an educated citizenry critical to a viable democracy. Selfish distrust became pervasive among young people who could see no higher purpose for their education than making money: We almost lost the Republic."
Great-grandmother, shaking her head in dismay, says, "The situation must have seemed hopeless. If you hadn’t already told us that schools were good, I’d have guessed that everything fell apart."
"And your guess would be right," Hope says. "Except that in 2099 everyone votes."
"Everyone votes?" great-grandmother says, surprised. "How could that be?"
"By the middle of the century, voter turnout was less than 15%. No one cared anymore. Since money talked, one-person, one-vote was meaningless. Our democracy had become an oligarchy bought and sold by special interests."
"Oh, Hope," grandfather groans, "Stop depressing us. Tell us what happened!"
"50-million angry citizens marched on Washington, DC," Hope says with a smile. "Massive demonstrations shut down the country. It was a bloodless reprise of the Peloponnesian Wars, but this time the Athenians defeated the Spartans: the President and Congress passed campaign finance reform 70 years after it was first championed by Bradley and McCain."
"Amazing," grandfather says. "After all that, Hope, what’s the most significant accomplishment of the 21st Century?"
"That’s easy," Hope says without hesitation: "We now believe that serving others is more important than serving ourselves."
"Is Time Magazine still published?" great-great-grandmother asks.
"Why yes," Hope says.
"Then who is Time’s person of the year in 2099?"
"He’s the man responsible for the restoration of a vast rain forest in West Africa. He’s the great-grandson of Julia Butterfly Hill, a woman we still talk about today, who served the world by saving a redwood tree."
Have a happy new millennium.
- Dave Badtke is founder of the developing Carquinez Review literary journal. Find him on the web at www.CarquinezReview.com.
Contact him at:
Dave@CarquinezReview.com or Dave@Badtke.com