If you are a traditional, straight from high school student you were born in 1997 and shaped by certain events, but not others. This is not just a neat bit of trivia. it's also a look at what shaped a person's world view. One of the more difficult things to come to terms with is which references work and which don't when using examples in the classroom. For many of you things like Watergate and the fall of the Berlin Wall are ancient history and have little relevance to how you think of the world. But the things that matter to you, probably don't matter to folks my age.
Very late in the semester we'll discuss the concept of a political generation. The fact that people in different age groups sometimes tend to think alike, not because they all know each other, but because they all grew up exposed to the same events. I grew up in the 70s for example - keep that in mind when you hear me go off on this and that.
There are 75 items on the list, here are the ones that I think are most interesting to ponder.
1 - There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.
2 - States and Velcro parents have always been requiring that they wear their bike helmets.
3 - The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
4 - There have nearly always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.
5 - They “swipe” cards, not merchandise.
6 - As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.
7 - American tax forms have always been available in Spanish.
8 - More Americans have always traveled to Latin America than to Europe.
9 - Amazon has never been just a river in South America.
10 - Refer to LBJ, and they might assume you're talking about LeBron James.
11 - Women have never been too old to have children.
12 - They’ve always gone to school with Mohammed and Jesus.
13 - The Communist Party has never been the official political party in Russia.
14 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show has always been available on TV.
15 - Jimmy Carter has always been a smiling elderly man who shows up on TV to promote fair elections and disaster relief.
16 - Women have always been kissing women on television.
17 - Music has always been available via free downloads.
18 - Sears has never sold anything out of a Big Book that could also serve as a doorstop.
19 - Electric cars have always been humming in relative silence on the road.
20 - No state has ever failed to observe Martin Luther King Day.
21 - Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.
