Stephen Yeargin

Tonight, The History Channel premiered 1968 With Tom Brokaw, a two-hour synopsis of a year that upended the social and political landscape of the United States and arguably the world. From the Vietnam war, the student protests, the civil rights movement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy to the Apollo 8 mission, it is clear why this particular point in time was chosen to analyze and weigh its lasting effects today. As with most programs on educational television, I highly recommend it.

We did have a startling moment when an old news clip from the year made mention of my hometown in Greenfield, Tennessee. The soldier’s name was Charles Martin, answering CBS reporter Peter Kalisher.

I’d like to say Hi to Mom back there at home. I know she’s worried about me and [we've] had no mail or resupplies, so to Momma back there in Greenfield, Tennessee, hello Momma.

Dr. Richard Chesteen of UT Martin will retire later this year after 44 years as a college professor. He recently won a statewide podcast competition with a five minute piece titled “Baba O’riley…defining moments”. In it, he takes a look at The Who’s famous song and its topic of a “Teenage Wasteland”. He now firmly believes that the youth of today are in an over-connected world that he calls “Teenage Talk-land.”

One has to wonder when do they ever think, or sit in moments of solitude? What would happen if they were locked in a room with no sound and four blank walls for two hours. Would they be able to mentally deal with such without screaming for release?

The rebels of the 60s and 70s grew up, and lead America to its pinnacle of power in the post cold war era. Today, our younger generation confronts a world just as dangerous. The violence of terrorism on a worldwide scale. Nuclear proliferation. An environmental melt-down. We can only hope that as they mature and reach full adulthood that they will have gotten their heads out of the computers, cell phones and iPods long enough to secure the world for another generation in which their own children can have their own God-knows-what defining moments.

I take a similar view. I believe that in the coming year, exactly four decades after that defining time in American history, a new generation of students and working adults will be given its opportunity to leave a lasting effect on the future of our nation and our world. It is my hope that we will realize that forty years is long long enough to live in fear and doubt of our own national identity. It is much too long a time to go without trusting our elected leaders. Forty years is much too long to believe that we can solve the growing divide between rich and poor by ignoring it. It is also far too long to live with the illusion that our way of life should be the model for all of mankind, by force if necessary.

We must stop putting our faith in money, technology or in charismatic showmen charading for the creator of the universe and start putting it in each other. The series ends with perhaps the only unifying moment in the entire year of 1968: the Apollo 8 mission to orbit the moon on Christmas Eve. Bitter elections, assassinations, non-violent and violent protests, the civil rights and women’s rights movement and the drug counter-culture all seemed to take a back seat to a few days when man accomplished a goal in reaching for the heavens.

So, how are you spending 2008?