Article March 26, 2007 Issue

A BRIGHT TOMORROW — TODAY

ANNETTE KREUTZIGER-HERR

WHEN I think about the world I lived in as a teenager, versus the world my 15-year-old daughter lives in today, it would seem that my world 30 years ago was very different. Was it a safer world? Did it offer more hope? Is my today what I thought it would be back then? I'm not so sure. What I am sure of is that pressing ecological and political issues may change places and faces, but these issues remain at the forefront of thought, as history has proved.

When I was 15, Germany was divided by a wall. I lived in West Germany, with my parents and sister. There was no European Union — just a world split into an East and a West. Atomic power and the possible selfdestruction of humankind weighed on everyone's minds, as well as the terrorism created by the "Red Army

Faction" in Germany. In many parts of the world, women couldn't vote. I was studying Christian Science and forming a spiritual perspective of my world. I had joined The Mother Church in Boston and regularly attended one of its branch churches. I remember spending time painting, making music, and taking long bike-rides with my boyfriend. I also wrote letters for the release of prisoners. I cared about my world — and I expected good, despite imposing threats to the contrary.

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