Vote Like Your Kids' Lives Depend On It
And engage with them, to
let them know they have a role in their own futures. After all, it was our kids
who got us to stop smoking.
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
JUN 18, 2024
We seem to spend a fair
amount of time these days bemoaning and fearing for the fate of our kids and
the next generations if the world’s woes continue to worsen, our climate and
environment are further challenged, and our democracy is irrevocably damaged by
demagogues and deluded doom scrollers.
Having daughters and
granddaughters myself, I too fear for their futures, but I also ask myself from
time to time whether they’re doing enough themselves to help their own cause.
They can actually and actively have a role in helping us make things better.
It’s long past time for another children’s crusade and there’s no more pressing
time than right now for the kids to kick off their own campaign.
Pressure from our kids
went a long way toward helping millions of their parents kick the smoking
habit. Maybe a similar movement by today’s kids can help us save our democracy.
All they need to do is to convince their indifferent, turned-off, or confused
relatives to get out and vote in November. It’s our job to help them do
precisely that. We owe it to our children to let them know what we believe, and
if they differ with us, we owe it to them to be honest adversaries and to try
and change their minds. And yes, the process works in both directions. It’s
through honest discussions and confrontations that children grow into adults
with a firm sense of their place in society and their own obligations and
responsibilities as well.02:07
I was raised as a
passenger in stinky, smoke-filled cars while my mother puffed away incessantly
on her Kools or Kents or whether brand she favored at the time and generally
refused to crank open the car’s windows because it might mess up her hair. This
automotive experience pretty much soured me on smoking forever-- I complained
constantly about it on every road trip. That’s important to appreciate because
nine out of 10 current adult smokers started before age 18. Of course, we
didn’t know or worry about the effects of secondhand smoke in the car back then
and, if the truth be told, most kids then thought that it must be cool to be
sucking those carcinogens into their little lungs and couldn’t wait to get
started themselves. I guess we all figured that if it was good enough for our
parents, how bad could it be for us?
It was the age of The
Marlboro Man. Billboards, vending machines and cigarette butts were everywhere.
Looking back at some of the classic romance films from the 40’s and 50’s, we’re
amazed today to see that everyone smoked in almost every scene. No one seemed
to care that their breath could readily peel the wallpaper off the wall and
probably stop traffic as well. Teen role models at the time, like James Dean
and Natalie Wood - the stars of Rebel Without a Cause - were
rarely seen in real life without a cigarette even if the production codes at
the time meant that they couldn’t be seen smoking in their films. Watching
reruns of Mad Men which was set in the 60s, you wonder how so
many people could be so stupid for so long. The recent Apple TV streamer Sugar with
Colin Farrell, which seems to take place in old Hollywood, had so many
characters constantly lighting up that it actually felt awkward and
uncomfortable.
But eventually the times
did change, and coffin nails began to fall out of favor, at least among
sentient adults. Government regulation, aggressive litigation, and far better
information distribution about the risks and harms associated with cigarettes helped
to reduce their popularity and use. Social scorn, stigmatization, outright
ridicule, isolation, and even pop culture also played a significant role.
In a TV episode of Happy Days, set in the 1950s but
created in the 1970s, which was called “Smokin’ Ain’t Cool,” Joanie starts
smoking to fit in with the “cool” crowd until Fonzie tells her that it isn’t
really cool. And who would ever know better?
And, as noted above, the
constant carping of millions of kids who learned at school and on TV just how
bad smoking tobacco was for the health and longevity of their parents had a
major effect as well. Lung cancer, lost limbs, emphysema, and other ailments
and illnesses were no laughing matters and the kids made it clear that they
preferred to have their parents stick around instead of dying young from some
avoidable disease. I had a friend once who couldn’t stop speeding (and probably
drinking) no matter how often his family begged him to slow down. The only
thing that eventually helped was when his kids taped their pictures right next
to the car’s speedometer to remind him of what he might any day leave behind if
he was killed in a crash.
Today, we need to help
the same kids to step up and educate, cajole and, if necessary, shame their
folks and family members into voting because Trump and the MAGAts are a far
worse cancer for our society than cigarettes. Children are the hope of the future--a
cliché but nevertheless true. They need to convince their parents,
grandparents, relatives and others that there’s nothing more important than
stepping up and voting in this year’s election. Some 80 million people stayed
home in 2020 and didn’t vote. We can’t let anything similar happen in 2024 and
our kids can help make the difference.
There are clear and easy
answers to all the lazy, tired and foolish excuses we’re hearing every day
from those who choose to ignore Hunter Thompson’s sage warning that: “the only
people who really know where the edge is are the ones who have gone
over.” We’re all on that very precarious edge and that’s not a risk that
any of us can afford to take or ignore. The idea of voters wishing for “a pox
on both their houses” and deciding to simply sit this election out is
essentially admitting that they have no interest in the future of their kids’
or their country’s lives. Cleverly writing in bogus, made-up or fanciful names
on the ballot is more than just a waste of your precious vote, it’s a waste of
what little voice you might hope to have in the direction in which our country
is headed. And saying that your vote won’t matter anyway is probably the worst
cop-out of all because we know, unfortunately, that this election will likely
be even closer than the last and every single vote in every city and state will
absolutely matter in the final analysis.
Whoever anyone may vote
for, the one thing that is absolutely clear is that we all must vote in
November and encourage everyone we know to do the same. At the end of the day,
it’s not simply what you do for your kids or tell them to do, it’s what you’ve taught
and shown them to do for themselves that will help to make them into concerned
and effective citizens.