Starting year 40.

Yep, today starts my 40th year of life. Amazing to look back at all that's happened in the past 39 years. When I was born, Apollo 9 was launched, Richard Nixon was President, and computers filled up a whole room. Star Trek was just finishing it last (and lamest) season, and in the real world, the Concorde had just been tested. It was the year of Super Bowl III, Led Zeppelin I, and Apollo 11. It was also the year of the My Lai massacre, the Manson Family murders, and the Altamont Concert violence.

I came to life the same year as the Internet (well, the Arpanet) and Unix (well, Unics), and the Boeing 747, which I have many memories of from my family's frequent trips across the Atlantic to and from Germany. Since then, the 'net has grown from three nodes, taking over 25 years to grow to 18,000 sites -- but to over 100 million Web sites today. Unix grew from a two-user system primarily intended for text processing of patent applications, to a powerful tool that handles the majority of Internet processing, but can run on everybody's home desktop. Only air travel has become more annoying rather than more useful, with terror fears turning simple travel into a major hassle.

Although I grew up thinking that speaking two languages was normal (until I started getting more American friends), I thought two would always be enough - now I can hold conversations in four. I figured that if I were to live outside of the Maryland/Virginia/DC enclave, it would be in Europe, but now I've been in California for over ten years. I always thought of Europe as my "normal" vacation destination, but these days I take weekends in Mexico and am planning my third trip to Brazil. Still need to visit Asia, though!

Aside from just school friends in Germany, I know have online friends all over the world. Growing up, I never would have imagined corresponding regularly and in real-time with people in Brazil, Finland, the UK, and many other places around the world and in cities throughout the US. And many of them, I can talk to just by pulling a little phone out of my pocket and spending a few pennies. How far we've come from the days when one company owned all the phones, they were on the walls and tabletops at home or office, and long distance (especially internationally) was a luxury for special occasions.

But despite all of these advances that bring us closer together, some changes have been more disturbing. Instead of Vietnam, we have Iraq and Afghanistan. While I honestly believe that the danger from terrorism is no greater now than it was 39 years ago, the rhetoric of fear continues to dominate politics in this country and abroad, putting a shadow of oppression over us that serves not to protect us, but to support the grip on power of the elite. In many ways our country seems to be in the grip of a fear that is pushed upon us by powerful people in government, who seem to want to constantly remind us that freedom is not as important as being protected from the boogeymen of the world.

Still, I have high hopes that our ever-more-interconnected world, with the skills of bright, creative, freedom-minded people, will bring about the changes needed to challenge the power elites that use their auras of authority and legitimacy for their own benefit. The world is changing more rapidly and more wonderfully than they will be able to handle. The generations growing up now are becoming familiar with the tools and ideals of this new world, and soon the dinosaurs that can't figure out how to live in it will die off.

They say that an optimist sees the glass as half-full, and the pessimist sees it as half-empty, while the engineer declares that the glass is simply too large. What should I call myself, the one who says that someone stole half of the glass of rights and freedoms, and I will champion the cause to see them restored? :)