Greetings to the 13th generation of Americans: There are almost 80 million of us born between 1961 and 1981. We are the 13th generation of Americans since the founding of our country. We are the most racially and socially diverse generation in American history; yet despite the diversity that sometimes divides us, many common experiences do unite us.

We are the first generation to talk by computer, the first to pass through metal detectors to enter school. We have the lowest job skills of any recent group of Americans. We are the product of more divorces and have a higher percentage in prison than any generation before us....

While many of us are grateful to live in America, we recognize and worry about the fact that our future has been sold out. Our political leaders have run up tremendous debts--economic, social, and environmental burdens that our generation and generations to come must confront. Now, on the edge of a new millennium, our generation has the difficult task of beginning the great American cleanup....

In the past 200 years, each generation of Americans has had its unique calling: breaking free of England, ending slavery, providing a safety net during the Great Depression, defeating the Nazis, gaining women's equality, and winning civil rights for millions. Today,' however, there is no easily identifiable enemy--no Hitler, King George, or Depression-era Dust Bowl. Today the enemy is us: a nation unwilling to stop living for the present at the expense of the future....

Our generation's mission may seem less heroic than other battles, but it is just as vital: We must lay aside our cynicism, get off our butts, and take a stand for our common future.

Reprinted with permission from the introduction of Revolution X: A Survival Guide for Our Generation , by Rob Nelson and Jon Cowan, 1994, New York : Penguin Books USA .