Robert Ken Who
By: Jim Gustafson
By now, so they say, somewhere in the good ‘ol US of A a baby is screaming and sleeping without any idea that she or he is the 300 millionth resident of the land. I am not sure what difference it really makes. If anyone tries to point to a specific child there will certainly be conflict, law suits, licensing issues and DNA tests to prove the bragging rights. Yet, what is the point, after all. Would this child grow-up to introduce herself saying, “Hi. I am Sally Smith. I am the 300 millionth person in the United States of America. Want to see my baby picture?” I don’t think so.
Having 300 million people hasn’t changed my life significantly. Things seem pretty much the same as they did when there were, say 299,999,999 people. There may be a little more traffic. The lines at the airport seem longer. Bagels appear to have gotten just a bit smaller. There seems to be more cars ahead of me in the drive-thru at Wendy’s, but that could just be my imagination. It may have nothing to do with the 300 millionth American.
Now that there are so many of us, it is going to be important to figure out how to get along. Were going to need to spread things like food and medicine around just a little more. We need to give folks some more room. Also, we probably will have to be more mindful of all the things we have in common and less focused on our differences. After all, there are a lot more of us today than back in 1967, when the 200 millionth American was born. Back then, Life Magazine decided who it was and every body believed it. It was little baby boy Robert Ken Woo Jr.
Today, Robert Ken Woo Jr. lives in Atlanta. He is a lawyer. I’ll bet he’s happy to have 100 million more prospective clients than when he was born. Of course, it seems a good many of them are lawyers too. I hope we don’t keep too busy.