Future Generations

Just when you thought you couldn't stand another minute of 2008, the world's timekeepers made it longer. Yesterday, in the blink of an eye, they added an extra second to place official clocks in sync with the planet's rotation. The problem is that while atomic clocks tick on with annoying precision, Earth's rotational spin is actually slowing down, extending the solar day. The last leap second was added Dec. 31, 2005. If clocks weren't reset, future generations could eventually face early morning sunsets and find themselves cheering the New Year's Eve ball dropping in the bright sunshine.

What if, during William Howard Taft's presidency, Congress had enacted laws that would predetermine all spending well into the 21st century? As economic growth swelled government revenues, legislators would continue to prescribe - from six feet under - how to divvy the spoils. Their well-worn policy wheels would run over future elected officials and voters, preventing them from embracing new priorities unless they simultaneously rescinded past promises written into the law. Unable to see their way out of this logjam, the next generation of Republicans and Democrats would only make it worse - waddling back and forth between promising even more benefits relative to what could be delivered and enacting low-cost but ineffectual policies to achieve symbolic results.

When was the last time you gave your house a holiday gift? (Those storm windows don't count -- that's the equivalent of giving your spouse a vacuum cleaner.) A present for the house that has sheltered you should be something really lovely, something that touches all the senses, including the spiritual.Something like one of the spectacular rugs from Tibetan Treasures, 1629 York Road, where co-owner Chun-Wuei Su Chien can explain the origins of the various designs and the traditions embodied in the rug.Chien is the vice president of a group called Future Generations, a nonprofit, nonpolitical, international group based in Franklin, W.Va.

The poor American Association of Retired Persons.Its political enemies are its future members. The AARP created the richest retirees in history by putting baby boomers and Gen-Xers in deep hock. Now the lobbying group is starting to realize which side of the aisle its next dose of Geritol is coming from."We must remember our obligations to future generations" when deciding how to spend the federal budget surplus, says John Rother, AARP's chief lobbyist. "American families are expected to save and spend wisely.

WILL THE public's health be served? Will today's children and tomorrow's children be spared further enticement to take up a habit that will injure and perhaps destroy their well-being?Despite all the billions of dollars being flung around, despite the fierce clash of economic and political and medical interests involved in the tentative $360 billion settlement announced between the tobacco industry and most of the nation's state attorneys general, the nation must be assured that the health of this and future generations is paramount.

SO IT IS DONE. For the first time in 59 years, a people living in political and economic liberty has been transferred, with the acquiescence of the West, to the most brutal tyranny on the planet. Communist China's occupation of Hong Kong Monday, like Nazi Germany's occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938, is an infamous diplomatic betrayal. We will all regret it.Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who signed the treaty by which Hong Kong was handed over, blustered that "future generations will be able to look back" on Monday's events "as marking a new impulse toward freedom and democracy in China and the rest of Asia."

There are 58,132 names inscribed on the polished black granite wall at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington.Each name is that of an American killed in the Vietnam War. The names are listed chronologically, by the order in which they fell.Dale R. Buis, an Army major from Pender, Neb., tops this list. Major Buis was killed on July 8, 1959. He was 37 years old.Richard Vande Geer, a 27-year-old Air Force second lieutenant from Columbus, Ohio, is the last name inscribed there. He was killed May 15, 1975.

OVER THE past 25 years New Jersey has struggled, under a succession of Democratic and Republican governors, to reverse a social and economic decline that, by the 1960s, had hit many Northeastern industrial areas.Difficult budget decisions were made, often at significant political cost. But the benefits for New Jersey residents were many. A vastly improved higher education system was developed and state aid to local public schools surged. The environment was cleaned up. Mass transit was improved.

THURSDAY 5 p.m. Heavy rain falling all over New York. Millions of cars burning gas, honking, going nowhere. I am marooned in a Fifth Avenue bus. Feels like two weeks ago I got on up at 155th Street.This could be because we're only making 50 feet an hour. Or it could be the seat. It's built for slow, poison-the-spirit torture, like those Broadway theater seats they sell at $60 apiece and you can't even keep them.Why would you want to? Maybe get a tax deduction for donating them to some friendly Latin dictator's torture division.

Washington -- As it now stands, the vast majority of today's youth are at their peak physical condition, and as a consequence, pay the lowest annual health-insurance premiums of any age group. That is the way it should be. Few Americans, I think, want our youngsters to be paying health insurance for those of us who are past our 40th, 50th or 60th birthdays. We have a responsibility to take care of our own bills and aging parents, while helping our children grow wings so they can learn to fly as adults.

Just when you thought you couldn't stand another minute of 2008, the world's timekeepers made it longer. Yesterday, in the blink of an eye, they added an extra second to place official clocks in sync with the planet's rotation. The problem is that while atomic clocks tick on with annoying precision, Earth's rotational spin is actually slowing down, extending the solar day. The last leap second was added Dec. 31, 2005. If clocks weren't reset, future generations could eventually face early morning sunsets and find themselves cheering the New Year's Eve ball dropping in the bright sunshine.

"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt," Herbert Hoover quipped 80 years ago. Today, the United States has $9.4 trillion in federal debt and another $50 trillion in unfunded government promises to future generations. Some joke. What this represents is a fiscal millstone for future generations and a moral travesty for all of us. Many philosophers - and even some politicians - have recognized that social morality is ultimately about stewardship: preserving a good world for future generations.

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon warned world leaders at a climate change summit yesterday that "the time for doubt has passed" and urged them to act quickly to save future generations from the devastating effects of global warming. "I am convinced that climate change and what we do about it, will define us, our era and, ultimately, the global legacy we leave for future generations," Ban told more than 80 national leaders in the General Assembly chamber. "We hold the future in our hands," he said.

What if, during William Howard Taft's presidency, Congress had enacted laws that would predetermine all spending well into the 21st century? As economic growth swelled government revenues, legislators would continue to prescribe - from six feet under - how to divvy the spoils. Their well-worn policy wheels would run over future elected officials and voters, preventing them from embracing new priorities unless they simultaneously rescinded past promises written into the law. Unable to see their way out of this logjam, the next generation of Republicans and Democrats would only make it worse - waddling back and forth between promising even more benefits relative to what could be delivered and enacting low-cost but ineffectual policies to achieve symbolic results.

Young and old alike back Social Security If conservatives such as Gary Galles are so worried about the economic legacy we will leave future generations, why have they been so silent for six years as President Bush and the mostly Republican-controlled Congress ran up a record-high national debt ("Elderly-political complex bequeaths crushing burden to next generations," Opinion * Commentary, June 21)? Interest payments alone on that debt will cost $261 billion in fiscal 2008. This is the real "plundering" future generations face.

MALIBU, Calif. -- As Dwight Eisenhower left office, he warned against undue influence on government by the military-industrial complex. He urged us to "avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage." Unfortunately, others with undue political power also bloat government. In particular, Americans are sacrificing the future to the elderly-political complex.

You would think in a city as wealthy and ambitious as Los Angeles there would be more direct generosity directed to the museums. The idea of building this place for future generations is not really up to the level of the city at all." - MICHAEL GOVAN, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, on donations of art to the museum

Leo Bretholz held up a book as thick as a phone directory. Printed within are 74,000 names, enough to populate a small city. The names represent inhabitants of France who were deported to death camps during the Holocaust. And Bretholz's name is one of them. Though millions died amid the terrors of the Holocaust, the 86-year-old is one who survived - part of a group that dwindles with each passing year. To ensure the lessons are shared with future generations after he is gone, Bretholz and other Holocaust survivors are working with teenagers and professional storytellers to share their experiences.

Last month, judges in the reparations case in federal court in Chicago ruled that the plaintiffs - "American descendants of slaves" - could sue the defendants - companies that participated in and benefited from slavery - for consumer fraud if the companies hid the history of their slave-related activities to attract customers who would not do business with them if the details were known. The companies can be sued for misleading consumers by concealing their involvement in the 19th-century American slave trade.

Like other thirtysomethings navigating their careers today, Jason Erkes is no stranger to job volatility. Early in his career, his television-producing job was eliminated. Then he dabbled in a few small entrepreneurial ventures. Today, Erkes, 38, is president of Sport & Social Clubs Inc., a Chicago company that runs events for upscale singles 21 to 35 in Chicago, San Francisco, Orlando, Fla., and Philadelphia. Erkes and a partner took over the business in 2001 when it was near bankruptcy.