Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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MAY 24-30, 2017 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM MARGARET DICKSON, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910.484.6200. U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) just published a book. Not a diatribe about our paralyzed Congress, our dreadful 2016 election, or Democrats and Re- publicans duking it out all over our nation, Sasse's "e Vanishing American Adult : Our Coming-of- Age Crisis and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self- Reliance" suggests something else entirely. Sasse writes that perhaps loving but overpro - tective parents have raised a generation of young adults who are not assuming responsibilities shouldered without question by their parents, grandparents and older forebearers. Perhaps our young folks need to step up to the plate. Hello, millennials! Not everyone sees "e Van - ishing American Adult" in this context. Some see Sasse's literary effort as the requisite book writ- ten by a politician with higher aspirations. Sniffed Alyssa Rosenberg in a review in e Washington Post titled "To Make America Great Again, Give Your Kid Chores," Sasse's book "comes across as an effort to set Sasse up for a larger role on the national stage." Writing for e New York Times, Jennifer Szalai hints at the same motivation, describing the Sena - tor as "a 45-year-old conservative whose political ascent has been remarkably swift." Senator Sasse may well be positioning himself for the one office larger than the U.S. Senate, so stay tuned to what the former college-president- now-politician is up to and what he says. Meanwhile, Sasse's newly-published book strives hard to make salient and painful points that have been made before by other authors and thinkers and which gives many American parents consider - able pause. ink helicopter parents. When one of the Precious Jewels, then a pip- squeak, headed into the third grade, I stopped by the school to meet his teacher, new to that elemen- tary school. She confided that she had come from a school in a disadvantaged neighborhood where she never met a parent of any of her students. She had transferred into a school with high achieving parents who expected the same from their chil - dren. So many mothers had dropped by to tell the new teacher about their very special "Susie" and "Stevie" that the new teacher felt smothered and doubted her decision to change schools. More than a little has been written about mil - lennials, who have also been called Echoes of the baby boom, Generation 9/11, Generation Me, Trophy Kids and other terms generally applied to young people in western, developed nations. ey have been described, as Sasse suggests, as self- absorbed, sheltered, pressured, confident, entitled and very special. ey are also seen as seeking a comfortable balance between work and personal life, having a strong social consciousness, collaborative work habits and enviable technology skills. As a proud and full-throated baby boomer born to parents of Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation, it is clear to me that collective life experiences define every generation. My parents' generation lived through the Great Depression, World War II and the postwar economic boom. ey were thrifty, deliberate and conservative in their work and personal lives. My fellow boomers and I grew up as part of the biggest demographic bump in American history to that point, requiring new schools and services at every stage in our lives, including all sorts of care services as we begin to fade into the sunset. We ignited and survived the great social up - heaval in our nation during the 1960s and 70s and were also labeled self-absorbed and all about "me." In our waning years, we also helped elect Donald Trump president of the United States. So, it is no surprise that millennials have been and continue to be shaped by the world they en - counter. ey were children and college students when the trauma of 9/11 forever changed our nation. ey are the most diverse and highly educated generation in American history, yet they still face the fallout of the Great Recession. As they estab - lish careers and families, they no doubt have read speculation that they will never achieve the finan- cial stability their parents have enjoyed. ey do not remember a time without computers and increasingly powerful technology that allows access to the entire world Instantaneous commu - nication is their way of life. eir world is unlike those of their parents and grandparents, so it is hardly surprising that they are different as well. I suspect the criticism Sasse levels at millenni- als — and by extension, at their parents — carries both kernels of truth and a shallow understand- ing of one generation from another. I also suspect Senator Sasse has his eyes on our nation's biggest political prize. Oh, Just Grow Up! by MARGARET DICKSON OPINION Some see Sasse's literary effort as the requisite book writ- ten by a politician with higher aspirations. U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.)