Four Things and the Fourth Turning: Education Environment Economy, Equity.
In the book The Fourth Turning by William Strauss, Neil Howe, They talk about What the Cycles of History Tell Us. About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny. The theory of the cycles of history and what past generations can teach us about living through times of upheaval—with deep insights into the roles that we all, the Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millennials have to play.
They tell us about the cycle of four generation, lasting about eighty years. Eighty years ago, what Tom Brokaw called the greatest generation was at Omaha Beach ready to fight fascism in WWII. We are at that same point in history in the next cycle, the next fourth turning is here. This is the next Omaha Beach fight against fascism, here and now in America and Arkansas. It is up to us to provide the tools, insight and leadership to the young people of Arkansas and America to fight this fight.
The way I see this in our country right now.
These four things are totally interrelated and intertwined.
Education
The Environment
The Economy
and Equality, Equity.
For all, equity and equality. No matter who or what it is. It ties it all together. Quality health care. Excellent education. Good fair wages for all worker. A clean uncontaminated environment. For everyone equality. No matter who. Even people who can not afford it, uninsured etc. Equity has a double meaning. Equality and an investment in the future. In this case an investment in the future and our young people and our society.
If we do not have as many well educated people as we can, we will not have a strong economy. If we do not have as many well educated people as we can, we will not be able to repair the environment and fix this climate disaster.
We have to have a healthy environment to have a strong economy. We must have a healthy environment for our young people,,… to stay healthy and become productive members of our society and state, and have the tools, intellectual and emotional tools to help fix this climate disaster, our society and keep our economy strong.
We must have a healthy economy,.. to provide a serious education to our young people. We will have to have a healthy economy to provide proper health care to our young people. We will have to have a healthy economy to accomplish the mission… to fix the environment and this climate disaster.
It has already started to get rough. The tornado the passed through northwest Arkansas last week near the end of may was just a small foreshadowing of what we could face if we fail to stop this climate disaster. I still think we can get ahead of this climate curve, but it could be a pretty rough ride for a while and we must get very serious about this soon. We all do better when we all do better.
