Slobberknocking while wondering whatever happened to Jenny McCarthy: I hate coming out with a trite statement that makes me sound like a didactic crabby old man, but there's no way around it, so I'll just come out and say it. No, it's not "Get off of my lawn!" Today's generation has no sense of history. None at all. By today's generation, I don't mean Generation X, which is generally defined by birth years between 1960 and 1980. No, my distress comes from a generation without a label yet (the going handcuff is Generation Why). I'm not going to rail against the drug problem, the gun problem, or the angst problem, like so many before me. No, there's a deeper issue we have to deal with... and I think if this can be altered somehow the rest might fall into place. Not to sow the seeds of discontent in the Hardliners.Com family, but my point was underscored last week by Travis' column bemoaning the attention given to John Glenn's recent space flight. I quote: "I was in Communications class when they shot Mr. Glenn into space. We stopped class to watch it, even though the only person who was interested in seeing this was our teacher. My generation couldn't give one flip about this. To us, it's just another dude going up in a rocket. Whoopty-freakin'-doo!" I know that Travis isn't alone in wondering, "What's so great about that?" In the week following the release of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," I was asked -- twice -- why World War II was such a big deal when we should be making more movies like Mortal Kombat. I guess I'm just wondering why there isn't a sense of loss in our successors. While growing up, I didn't think that the world was created in 1969. I knew that what happened in the years before my birth was important to get a grasp on. If you have a sense of your past, you can get a handle on your present and a head start on our future. Y'see, Generation Why is the first microwave generation. They get their news, their food, and their entertainment immediately. As a society, we've been working so hard to make everything easier for the following generation... perhaps we did too good of a job. Now, it's too easy to be overwhelmed by what's going on now that you don't have to have a framework of reference. Travis' communications teacher and those like him might share a bit of the blame, however. Rather than just turning on the TV and saying "Hey, class, this is important, watch it," he should have given a bit of background to his class. Such as, "When America was starting out in the Space Race of the '50s and '60s, virtually none of the technology existed to make it happen. Engineers across the country were inventing a way to transport a man into space on the fly. There was no time to test satisfactorily for safety, and accidents were sure to happen. "Regardless of the risk, the astronauts in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs stood up and said, 'Yeah, I'll go.' And all the while, they knew the dangers involved in strapping themselves in, literally, a tin can on top of a missile. John Glenn proved that a human can orbit the earth and return safely in 1961. This year, Glenn proved that there isn't a retirement age set by Mother Nature, even for astronauts. "And, more importantly, NASA was using Glenn to make the country excited about space travel again. Look at all of the benefits we got from the technology push in our mad dash to the moon. What will we learn to do the next time we focus our effort and energy into establishing our new presence in space? It's up to you." So, I put it to you, Generation Why. The next time you ask, "What's so great about that?" take a moment to consider the response. If you don't get a satisfactory answer, dig for it. It's up to you. -- Devin Pike