America - and the world - was a much different place a century ago.
The 1920s were depicted as a carefree time in history books and in the cinema. The world today seems to be a much darker place.
In 1920, America had just emerged as a world leader, fresh from victory in Europe in the Great War. Today’s battles are often waged on our own soil, as we battle domestic terrorism and hate crimes (the most recent example sadly took place this past weekend, when five guests in a rabbi’s home in Rockland County were stabbed by an intruder at a Hanukkah celebration).
And America’s role on the world stage is often debated, both here and abroad. Few nations, in 1920, viewed China as a viable trading partner, yet more and more manufacturing jobs disappear each year, and more and more of our own goods are now made in China.
January 1920 was the dawn of prohibition in America. It would last 13 years. In 2020, we may see more states legalize marijuana for recreational use, and the further growth of the cannabis industry.
Our own portion of the world has also changed dramatically over the past century. Once it was largely rural with many dairy farms and country roads. Today there are few farms still standing in a region transected by four-lane highways. Interstate 747, a service road for New York Stewart International Airport, was paved over prime Orange County farmland half a century ago.
In the 1920s, the language spoken by immigrants in the Hudson Valley was likely to be Italian, and not Spanish. The largest industry was the railroad, which was also the principal mode of freight transportation. Trucks and planes now move our goods, which, though seldom manufactured here, are now stored in giant warehouses. More are on the way in the 2020s.
The 1920s ended on a sour note. The stock market crash of 1929 ushered in the Great Depression. While we worry that the present-day economy may be in a similarly precarious position, the dawning of a new year and a new decade, is always cause for optimism.
We can help shape our own future by spending more of our paychecks on goods manufactured here and by setting our dinner tables with foods grown and harvested close to home. We can bring them home from the store in reusable bags in hybrid or electric-powered vehicles.
We also need to respect one another in a way that wasn’t fashionable in the 1920s. That’s when the Ku Klux Klan marched in our very streets and when women and minorities had few rights or opportunities. Not everything was good in the Good Ole Days.
Parents, by nature, want to provide a better life for their children than the one they inherited. We need to think and act smarter if our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will inherit a better place in 2120.
Happy New Year!