In the 1990's there was a brilliant commercial featuring Avery Brooks.  In his distinctive baritone he spoke about his childhood dreams of the future.  He then went on to speak of new technology products that had arisen, but in the end lamented, "But where are the flying cars?"

As I became a young adult in the mid-1980's, I began to have many visions (hopes) of what my generation might accomplish by the time I was forty.  That time's three years past.  And my visions were not quite as accurate as I'd hoped.

Gay Rights:  I really believed that despite the attitudes around me at my small Catholic college, that the harmlessness of gay rights would soon prevail.  I underestimated the nation's fear of the "other."  I assumed that my broadening attitudes towards other's sexuality was just a normal part of growing up.  Either it wasn't part of growing up or there are an awful lot of people who need to grow up.  We lag far behind what I imagined.

Women's Sexual Freedom: I imagined that we weren't going to have another 20 years of the "double standard."  It's still there in so many ways.  Somehow, the evolution of and discussions of healthy attitudes towards the choices women make are still limited in audience and scope.  My unscientific impression is this.  There definitely is a segment of women from teens through the elderly who make healthy sexual choices.  And a segment of the entire population that accept them.  But there is still a very repressed and judgmental portion of our society that considers women who are sexually active before marriage to be "sluts" and "whores."

In addition, I see a very frightening trend amongst the young to be far more sexually reckless than they should be.  It's popular to blame the media or the internet or pornography for this recklessness.  I really believe that for many teens it is a powerful rebellion against the entrenched double standard.  "If I have sex at all, I'm a whore?  Fine then, I'm a whore!"  Maybe I'm creating a straw man there, but I really think that the recklessness is a misguided attempt to gain sexual freedom.

The Environmental Movement:  I did not foresee the anti-science sentiment that would derail the environmental movement.  I sadly underestimated the ruthlessness of industry and the shortsightedness of our energy policies.  Somehow, the sense of urgency was lost.

Medicine and Genetics:  Some of the research that has happened has been exactly the type of thing I expected--but again, I failed to foresee the opposition to research that could save lives.  I never saw science getting pitted against the Anti-Choice forces.  It has coupled with the anti-environmental movement to drastically slow the implementation of some promising areas of research.

Computers and Communication:  I saw computers as coming to be a force in places like schools, hospitals, libraries, factories...I never really thought the home technology industry would come on as fast as it has.  The future beat me there.

I have more thoughts, but I have gone on long enough...until sometime in the future.