Our grandparents were raised during the Great Depression, and then became known as the Greatest Generation. War united their country and invigorated their economy. Less than a lifetime later, we were raised during the materialistic Eighties, and then became known as Generation X. Today, war divides our country, as our economy sustains wars on everything while libraries close, schools fail, and medicine is a privilege that too few can afford.

So as our generation begins to inherit the power in this country, what of us? We've progressed from the Great Depression to what the über-labeling media calls the "Great Recession."¹ Even though the past sixty-five years have shown the middle-minded citizen that wars cannot eradicate drugs, poverty, or modern enemies, we still refuse to treat the addicted or the afflicted. Fickle patriots are known to quote "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" to justify their wants, but rarely in defense of others’ equally justified wants.² Ergo, we simultaneously promote guns (which cause death) and suppress medicine (which preserves life).

And so we suffer. We suffer mandatory contributions to a military budget larger than the entire GDP of 85 percent of our world's other nations and territories.³ We suffer the shame of being countrymen and countrywomen to so-called Honorable persons who would force their own citizens to "carry their papers," despite every precedent. We suffer the hypocrisy of those who would exclude the bedrock birthright of citizenship to yet another group, despite every precedent. We suffer because those in power segregate themselves from each other so completely it's as if they occupy opposite sides of a canyon too wide for a bridge. We bear witness to their bickering from a turbulent river far below, and all we can see is the two parties at the tops of the cliffs screaming over our heads from left to right.

We suffer because they think they're special. Because, for one, they think they deserve taxpayer funded medicine but we don't.⁴ But they're not special, they're servants. We suffer because top executives think they're special, too. Because whether through folly or greed, they have failed us all. But when a deal was struck from the tops of the cliffs, the two parties assumed that we needed the fat cats to survive, and that big business would take care of us. Big business will not take care of us. Big business was given a life raft to stay the course in these waters that became troubled because they themselves broke the dam. Meanwhile, we, the people, struggle to swim in an ever swifter current.

We suffer these executives who, if they are merely average, make three hundred nineteen times the income of the American worker⁵ —as workers suffer benefit cuts, hours slashed, and prices that inevitably rise. All the while, our elected officials on both cliffs bang their drums and assure us, from the safety of the top, that we are the most capable work force in the world. The most capable of being duped, perhaps. Because as thousands and thousands of Americans—if they can find employment—struggle to buy bread, the minimum so-called livable wage rises like a stone in a river. Meanwhile, the average executive pay has increased eleven fold since Generation X was born.⁶

And as those cliffs pull ever farther apart, we in the river below find ourselves farther from the safety of either shore. While those who have been afforded a life raft need only plan their course through the rapids, we, the people, must cast off more and more just to stay afloat.

But I will suffer no more. I've written this at a bar on a beach in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. For five days, I've traded the raging whitewater for tranquil blue. With this sentence I've sipped a beer brewed here in St. John but bottled there in Portland, Maine, so I know how far from home I am. Why five days? Because that's how far one thousand dollars could get me. With sacrifice and ingenuity—old school hallmarks of success—I flew round trip from Boston, paid for accommodations, local transportation, food, drink, scuba diving, kayaking, and everything else—everything—for less than a thousand dollars.

Stay tuned. I did it once, and I will do it again. Every time outside the contiguous United States, and every time for less than one thousand dollars. Let those who have made this mess clean it up, and let the rest of us get back to the pursuit of happiness. Next stop: Ketchikan, Alaska.

Endnotes:

1 Chris Isidore, "The Great Recession," CNNMoney.com, http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/25/ news/economy/depression_comparisons.
2 Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence," U.S. National Archives, http://www. archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html.
3 Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, "National Defense Budget Estimates for FY 2010 (Green Book)," Department of Defense, http://comptroller.defense.gov/defbudget/ fy2010/Green_Book_Final.pdf (accessed July 20, 2010); Central Intelligence Agency, "GDP (official exchange rate)," The World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2195.html?countryName=&countryCode= &regionCode=%3E (accessed July 20, 2010).
4Brooks Jackson, "Healthcare for Members of Congress?," Factcheck.org, http://www.factcheck. org/2009/08/health-care-for-members-of-congress.
5 Sarah Anderson and others, "America's Bailout Barons," Institute for Policy Studies, http:// www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2009.
6 Ibid.

Got a week? Got a passport? Got a grand? That's an adventure. A grand adventure, and not a penny more. For more information, please visit www.agrandadventureandnotapennymore.com.