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Dear Children,

The years have turned over and suddenly you are 16 and 19 years old—a young man with a 4G phone and a young woman in college.  You have never known anything but wireless and mobility.

You are living in interesting times, dear children. You have seen our nation attacked and have felt truly threatened. You see acts of violence presented on television and on videos; did you know that you will have seen 100,000 murders, real or portrayed, on media screens in your lifetime? You have seen presidents and presidential candidates lie on television about their personal lives.  You have seen the first nonwhite president elected since the Republic was founded. 

You have seen corporate directors behave deceptively and callously. You have embraced sports heroes who make more money in a week than your best teacher who actually gave you something to believe in as a moral coordinate in your life will earn in his or her lifetime. You have seen kids and parents die in endless suicide bombings. You have sometimes seen religious leaders that compromise theological convictions while in service to the Bible they purport to teach you.

You have gotten used to cynicism and you have seen and heard patriotism – one of the best principles of human life – be turned over to marketing experts. You have been confused, scared, angered, and used. But I've watched you. And you have refused to become disheartened, and I stay certain that you remain optimistic and in good spirits about a world that just won't ever be as good as you are.

Your mother and I want you to be free, and we want you to be healthy. We want you to discover the sciences, the texts of the poets, the dreams of the stargazers, and the flights of the mapmakers. We thank God that, unlike your grandparents' generation, you will be able to apply in America to any university or college that gets your attention. You will be judged for admission by who you are and likely not by what you are.

We are thankful that you have not been raised in an era of abject racism and that most Americans with whom you will interact are free to vote and shop and eat anywhere that you do. We are certainly grateful as much as we are hopeful that you will come of age in a country that evidently cannot be stopped by terrorists. You will still be young when downtown New York City will finally be completely rebuilt. We are proud of each and every one of you and we will rely on you to turn the Scripture from just plain text into the ethics of your life. 

We can't fool you because you are young people who actually think and calculate and question and make choices. You have already chosen to take a stand in favor of moderation – even though you clearly know that these are not easy times for moderates and those who don’t just scream and even kill. 

I want to thank you for every question you raise, for every song you sing, for every hope you express, and for every idea you share.  Obviously, both of you are unique and different and separately challenged, but the quilt of our national youth is the blanket of our future.

Love ... 'Ben'

Ben Kamin is one of America's best known rabbis, a multicultural spiritualist, NYT Op-ed contributor and author of seven books, including his latest, "NOTHING LIKE SUNSHINE: A Story in the Aftermath of the MLK Assassination."  He is a regular ShareWIK.com columnist.

More Ben Kamin articles, click here  

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