The next generation

“Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
It was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
We borrow it from our children.” Ancient Native American proverb

It is said that Sarah Rapelje was the first baby born of Dutch settlers in 1625 in Fort Orange.
Her father was Joris Jansen de Rapelje and her mother Catalyntje Trico. She was of French Huguenots origin.
Sarah and her family moved to a farm on Long Island. This meant that the Rapeljes were in the first group of settlers to live on Manhattan Island, and in the first group to buy land from the Indians.
The Rapeljes were one of Brooklyn’s last farm families. In the 1920s their farmland was sold and got buried under concrete and asphalt.
The well-kept family history shows that there are now fourteen generations Rapelje in the US.
Native New Yorker Westbrook Van Voorhis - his family also goes back to the Dutch settlers, was the narrator of the famous ABC March of Times series of radio news dramatizations. To a generation (1930 – 1950) of Americans he was he known as the “voice of Time.” He had a sonorous and commanding voice. During two decades, men, woman and children who heard him on the radio, and in movies, made a national game of trying to imitate Van’s intonation of the “March of Time.”
At the moment, more than five million Americans claim total or partial Dutch heritage.
The United States is a gathering of next generations of all kind of specific groups from all over the world.
What is the inheritance of this generation as a gift for the next generation? How to find the key to harmoniously live and work together? To take the necessary steps to reduce CO2 emissions? To produce the next generation of cars? To build clean airplanes? To find the solution for water management? To bring the standard of living world-wide to a higher level? This should be a promise to the next generation.

What is your promise for the next generation?
What can the importance of next generations be for your company?