VISION OF THE FUTURE

Exploring the recent news of record-low teenage pregnancies in America, I watched a doctor attribute this in part to the American youth’s sharper “vision of the future”.

The US National Center of Health Statistics revealed that fewer teens were having sex – 47% in 2005 compared to 54% in 1991. More kids are finishing high school and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases is lower, the report showed.

“Vision of the future”. That struck me as a very powerful phrase. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and why it seemed so elusive in our present world.

Envisioning the future, I think, is one of our biggest challenges. Looking at the “bigger picture” feels more difficult because our day-to-day existence has become more intricate and pressured, demanding more energy and imagination to “get by” and finally, diminishing our ability to focus on the “vision of the future”.

I believe “the vision of the future” requires courage (Churchill once said, courage is the most important of man’s qualities, because all others follow it), foresight, boldness of spirit (Kennedy’s “dream of things that never were”), purity of purpose and most importantly, the determination to carry it through.

It is the leader’s chief task to provide the “vision of the future” for his constituency. I believe that a leader is measured by the clarity and sincerity of his “vision of the future”. President Bush’s vision for America – particularly how he resolves the Iraq conflict and the war on terror – is cloudy and vague, as illustrated so succinctly in the docu-movie “Why We Fight”. And this extends to his domestic policies as well, including the obvious vacuum of leadership in the “immigration debate”.

The lack of a “vision of the future” is even more palpable in the case of our president. GMA talks about a “strong republic” but unashamedly mortgages the public trust for the sake of political survival. She reigns solely on instinct, not inspiration.

Soon, the government will unveil its much-ballyhooed terror law. As the world continues to grapple with the extremist threat, that should be welcome, happy news. But only a few think it is. Perhaps people already see through it (or her). She has no vision, sad to say, and if she did, it would certainly be a sham.

But if, assuming the doctor was right, and the youth have developed a collective “vision of the future”, why does it seem to elude our leaders, the people with the power and/or the mandate to lead? In the case of Bush & GMA, are they so distracted by political survival or has the burden of leadership become so heavy they can no longer see the horizon?

I suspect the man on the street is more capable of defining a “vision of the future”. Is it possible inspiration is inversely proportional to power? I guess this reflects the state of our political processes today…but that is another subject.

The eyes of children frolicking in Manila’s jumbled streets can be deceptive. The call for “the vision of the future” seems greater in the streets than they can are in the corridors of power. It is there that people should be convinced that “getting by”, that mere survival is unacceptable. They must see the bright future and embrace it…so all that is left to do is figuring out how to get there.