We owe it to our children…” says nearly every political leader, activist and salesman just before pitching you their next great idea. Whether it’s healthcare, debt-reduction or any number of other issues, it is frequently framed as being payment to the debt we owe our children. 
   Whether or not you actually have children is irrelevant. You “owe it to future generations” to see their policies enacted. If you are against these policies, you are against children — and forget the ugly children. You are against the cutest, most adorable children. It is really a brilliant political device, even if in the end it is nothing more than a fallacy.  
    These same politicians who declare that you owe your children universal healthcare, for example, would not dare to suggest that your children are owed married parents or any other things that benefit children but do not serve their own agendas. 
   No, it actually has very little to do with the children. It is about getting you to support their policies; notwithstanding, these desperate politicians and activists do raise an interesting thought.
  Merriam-Webster defines the word “owe” as, “To have an obligation to pay or repay (something, especially money) for something received.” 
    I would argue, based on this definition, that we do not owe anything to our children. Certainly, with children come many obligations and responsibilities to be borne by the parents. But obligations and responsibilities do not make a debt. Even so, we are not debt-free. In addition to those credit card, student loan and mortgage payments most Americans are compelled to make, we each individually bear a huge debt that cannot be ignored. 
    We owe a debt to our fathers. Every person who has come before us and seen a drop of sweat fall from his or her brow has helped create the society and country we take for granted today. 
  From high-profile figures such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, to forgotten soldiers who fought in the trenches on the Western Front during World War I and even to those who were never known to have the chance to be forgotten and worked to build the railroads or toiled under the sun in a South Carolina tobacco field — we owe it to them to see  their efforts and sacrifices were not made in vain.
    We must acknowledge that by being blessed enough to enjoy the benefits that come with being an American, to borrow a famous analogy from football coach Barry Switzer, we were born on third base, and we must realize that we didn’t hit a triple.    
     We are merely pinch runners for the many men and women who came before us and strove, fought and, in countless cases, died for not only our rights but also our inherent opportunity to be successful at whatever we deem worthy of pursuit. We owe it to them to maintain this — the American dream. 
    We owe it to them to continue the work they began, to not only make use of the rights and opportunities afforded to us, but also to enhance and strengthen them to ensure they outlast us. 
   And the real beauty of this is that it quickly comes full circle. The torch never stays in the same hands for long. The capital required to pay the debt to the past satisfies the down payment on our children’s futures. And the rest, as it was to us, will be up to them.