Lately the White House has been out canvassing the opinions of young people. A group of Cleveland State University students, according to a piece in the Washington Post, were recently startled to find themselves shaking hands not with a mid-level administration aide, as they had expected, but with President Obama himself. “We are so interested,” Mr. Obama told the surprised youths, “in figuring out how to get your ideas, your input, your energy.”
It’s a nice idea, if carrying a faintly embarrassing whiff of the Carter years. It was Jimmy Carter who famously cited the opinion of his daughter, Amy, in 1980 campaign debate with Ronald Reagan. He, the American president, had asked her, his 13-year-old, what she believed the most important issue facing the country. “Controlling nuclear arms,” said she. (Consulting a child did not increase public esteem for Mr. Carter.)
I don’t mean to slam poor Amy, though. After all, what do 13-year-olds know of the big wide world? They have energy, for sure, but their minds are yet unformed and their ideas, while big, can be pretty nutty.
But perhaps I’m only saying this because, like a White House official, I recently sat in on an impromptu and youthful focus group. The children were a few years short of the collegiate demographic — OK, they ranged in age from 5 to 11, half boys and half girls — but had plenty to contribute when the talk turned to the green technologies of the future so beloved by our current president.
“… In 10 years, we won’t be driving cars anyway,” one member of the focus group was saying.
“Yeah, we’ll have flying cars!” said a littler member.
“Or jetpacks,” put in someone else.
“But that would stink, because you wouldn’t be able to talk to anybody. The wind would just be whooshing in your ears.”
“You could have a headset.”
“And just program in where you wanted to go, and wheew! You’d go there.”
“Oh, guys! I know! We could ride in a huge enormous bubble! Everyone could have their own, just floating …”
“The wind would blow you wherever you wanted to go.”
“Cool!”
“Yeah, but what if it pulled you out to sea and you got caught up in, like, the Gulf Stream? You’d be yelling inside your bubble. Aaaah!”
“Aw, what if lightning hit the bubble! Gzzzzgt! And then it would pop and you’d fall into the water.”
“Well, you’d have another bubble that would pop up and save you.”
“No! Wait! I’ve got it! What if the ocean … was made … of soapy water! Like dishwater. So if your bubble came down, it would float!”
“Awesome!”
The conversation took another turn at this point — a point at which the oceans had been transformed into giant sinks filled with detergent and everyone in the world was riding around in bubbles on the wind currents above it.
Now, there’s an idea! That’s some input! And boy do young people have energy! But practicality? Not so much.
Meghan Cox Gurdon’s column appears on Sunday and Thursday. She can be contacted at [email protected].
