Interview one of your grandparents or someone of their generation. What is their philosophy on sustainability, ecological perspective and sense of place? How did their upbringing differ from yours? Share with them what you are learning about in University Colloquium. What is their perspective on what you have been learning about this semester?
Me, Colin, Jido, Casey Taken By: Mary Beth Gates
I interviewed my grandfather, Jido, which means grandfather in Lebanese, about the difference between his upbringing and mine, as far as sustainability, ecological perspective, and sense of place. Here was his response:
My upbringing was a lot different than the way people are raised today. In the 30s and 40s we didn’t think about any of the issues today. We were fighting in WWII and then the Korean War. The biggest issues we dealt with included: finding ways to feed our families, making sure we had a roof over our heads and saving money so we could buy the things our families needed. In my New York neighborhood, family was very important. Many of us had to leave school at 16 years old to work and help our families earn enough money to survive. There were few to no fast food restaurants. Today there are multiple fast food restaurants on every corner. Families purchased farm fresh food and often had their own gardens; we did not feed our livestock hormones or antibiotics. People were much healthier because we cooked and ate at home. There was a community environment where neighbors looked after each other, helped in times of trouble and socialized with each other. Children respected all adults and were expected to obey the adults like they were their own parents. Life was a lot easier in many ways, despite the poverty so many lived in. There was no competition for who owned the nicer clothes, shoes, or electronic devices. Everyone I knew was in the same financial status. We didn’t have to worry about drug abuse, the legal age for drinking was 18 and we did drink beer and smoked. The dangers of smoking were not known at that time. In fact, you would go to movies and always see the characters smoking and drinking. When they showed the clips from the war they also included seeing the soldiers smoking. Many women drank wine during their pregnancies because nobody ever said that it was bad for the babies. For my 16th birthday I received a pair of roller skates that cost $8.00, to use at the roller rink. We had sodas and people smoked at the party. When I was 17, I finally purchased my first bicycle. It cost $40.00 and it took me several weeks to pick it up because I was $2.00 short and had to earn the money before I could take it from the store. Our family did not own a car until I was 21 years old. There were not any concerns about fuel consumption or pollution because so few people owned cars and the ones that did, did not travel as much as people do today. Today most families own anywhere from 2 to 5 cars and everyone drives everywhere. Most kids today don’t even own bicycles and I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of them couldn’t ride a bike if they tried. I think that in today’s society we need to find alternate energy sources that are greener because with our current rate of fuel consumption, we are killing our world. 
My first plane ride was after I joined the Air Force. People did not travel like we do today. People don’t think twice about hopping on a plane and flying to Las Vegas for a weekend, or taking three day cruises. We have become a society seeks instant gratification on a daily basis. We waste so much energy, fuel, food and space. Today people judge others success by the number of cars they own, the number of houses they own (especially the size of their homes), the number of electronics they own, etc. I think it is such a good thing to require students to take the Colloquium class at FGCU because it will hopefully open the students eyes to what we are doing to our world and hopefully incentivize them to make changes, even small ones, to help make their carbon footprint in the world, a little smaller. We need to concentrate on things like clean fuel, Wind Mill energy, solar energy, recycling and using more biodegradable products. I think that students are much smarter than we were and if they are taught the importance of preserving their environment they will be able to make better choices in their life.
It was really good to talk to my grandfather about this topic, and helped me realize what technology has done for my environment and people in my generation. He made me really realize that there are big issues that we as a society need to confront together.
It's time to make a difference!
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