ROBINSON: We didn’t start the fire, but our house is still in flames

The “next generation … " line has been said in response to topics ranging from “When will we have a better bra” to “How can we stop the polar ice cap from melting.”

Well, maybe the next generation can do better than we did, bucko.

Let’s tango.

No matter how well meaning the statement, at its core is this: Let’s kick that rusty can down the road so that hypothetical next generation can figure out society’s glaring problems.

Pass the buck, Chuck.

Not it.

Sucks to be them.

Singer Billy Joel had it right.

We ― the collective we that history will remember one way or the other — didn’t start the fire. It was always burning, since the world’s been turning ...

We flicked no Bic lighter or struck no match, but that does not mean that it is not on us to put that fire out. If we don’t, we ― the collective we that one day will decay in our individual graves ― will have blown it big time.

Think about it.

The next generation’s to-do list is pretty daunting as was the to-do list for the generations that have preceded them.

I do not know how they are possibly going to have enough time to tackle racial disparities, cure cancer, solve world hunger AND make PB and J sandwiches for their kid’s lunch boxes.

We are it.

There is no ‘next generation.'

We are the firefighters the world has long needed and cried out for.

Surely we can check off a few items from that to-do list before time calls our collective number. Surely we want to do better so that the next generation doesn’t have to deal with the fires of the past.

We didn’t start those fires, but it is our house in flames.

Our windows have exploded from the heat.

Our roof has collapsed.

Our basement might soon be the only thing left.

It is up to us ― the collective us that for generations has been covered in soot and breathing in hot fumes ― to do the work so they ― the generations that will carry our flames ― can live whole lives without the burdens of those fires we did not start but might have stoked.

This house is worth saving.

Grab a hose.