Progress?
While driving east on the Long Island Expressway, I observed a most disheartening sight. On the right hand side, between exits 48 and 49, where there once were glorious orange pumpkin fields, only large metal skeletons are visible. My mind’s eye reflected back to hundreds of children wandering through the crops and choosing the proper sized and shaped pumpkin for their homes and classrooms.
How can these future office buildings or condominiums attempt to replace the enchantment and glee of our future generations? To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, “You pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”
Another dubious area of progress is in the aviation field. In the days of Pan Am, TWA and Eastern Airlines, we boarded an airplane with a minimum of trepidation. Most people dressed as if they were going to an important event. Now, people board with bikinis, halter tops, and stretch fabrics, which do not hide much.
Also we have to get almost completely undressed, down to our stocking feet, to get through the safety machines and serpentine lines at the airport. If this is progress, take me back to the days when flying was much more civilized.
The two atomic bombs detonated over Japan in August of 1945 opened up a new area of concern. What should have opened new fields of positive nuclear development wound up with rogue nations threatening their neighbors with atomic destruction. Progress denied.
Our glorious computers, which were destined to have changed our lives for the better, have become outposts of greed and evil doing.
Progress, which should truly stand for advancement, improvement, betterment and development, has been subverted and sidetracked. Will the coming decades be sensitive to the positives and negatives of progress?
