American Values
How have American values (like freedom, equality, or community) changed in your lifetime?
I’m sure every generation says this, but I believe Generation X has a real claim to being something special.
We grew up in an analog world, with fewer distractions pulling us away from real life. We spent time outside. At Christmas gatherings, we talked and played games with older generations who shared their wisdom and perspectives shaped by experience. Most notably, the Silent Generation — people who understood the cost of world wars, real economic depression, and the power of communities coming together in hard times.
We also grew up during, at the end of, or just after the Civil Rights Movement. We learned about the sacrifices, humility, and strength of Black Americans who fought to be recognized not only as human, but as full Americans. Through secondhand knowledge — stories from family, neighbors, teachers, and community — many of us absorbed a belief in the hope of America without even realizing it until adulthood.
From the 1980s into the early 2000s, it felt like freedom and equality were moving forward. Same-sex marriage became law. Interracial marriage became mainstream. Single parenthood became more accepted than it had been in the 80s. Progress wasn’t perfect, but it felt steady.
At the same time, a social and political war began in the 80s, fueled by figures like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh. Over the last dozen years, we’ve watched that warfare take deep root in one of America’s major political parties, leading to setbacks in equality and personal freedom. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, attacks on immigrants both documented and undocumented, and the growing abandonment of the promise that “all men are created equal” have left many of us feeling that America is drifting from its ideals — including the simple idea that we should treat others as we wish to be treated.
Our freedoms have also been challenged by the digital age. The Patriot Act, signed into law after 9/11 and continually renewed, opened the door to widespread surveillance. Now we carry tracking devices in our pockets. Our data is collected, sold, breached, and exploited. Even our access to trustworthy information is under assault from misinformation and foreign influence in social media.
But through all this change, many of us still carry a core belief formed in childhood: the hope of America. Maybe it came from family stories. Maybe it came from watching hours of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation — imagining a future where humanity has grown beyond greed and division, where money no longer controls life, and where learning, exploration, and shared purpose drive us forward.
The world around us changed — but we still carry that flicker of hope. And we’re trying to pass it to the next generation: that we are all human, that we all want to belong, and that one day we might build a society that finally recognizes we are all, simply, alive.
