A school bus filled with (young?) people – their heads sticking out open windows — is sinking in the middle of San Francisco Bay, halfway between the Ferry Building and Sausalito, the route the Golden Gate Ferry makes. The bus was sinking/the water was rising.

Either way, the occupants would soon drown.

I dreamt this scenario on a Sunday morning in February, a few days before my annual physical. At first, I feared the dream was foreshadowing disease, and the bus occupants symbolized others who received their diagnosis too late.

But then, considering each dream element and what else was happening in the “real” world, I came to a different interpretation: School represents learning; a bus .in my dreams, symbolizes society. And, since the rainy 2006-07 San Francisco winter, rising water connotes the rising tide of fascism in the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11.

A personal challenge for a family friend also was occupying my thoughts. The young people on the bus were in their late 20, about his age. I had spoken with him the day before the dream, proffering sage advice about surviving, even thriving, in the wake of relationship upheaval. Life is a journey, not a destination. You know, life is like school, and we are here to learn its lessons.

Another concurrent happening: The night before the dream I read a mind-blowing article about the financial crisis: how international financiers drive empire, the near complete U.S. military domination of the Middle East (after Iran falls), the financial crumbling of Europe, under right wing governments’ imposed austerity, without a shot fired. The article’s unmistakable theme: how deep and worldwide the elite bankers’ engulfing political tentacles.

The article tore off the veneer of a mini vacation I had gifted myself after spending eight months away from the Bay Area and telegraphed the urgency of returning to writing and work.

The friend’s situation and the world calamity merged in the school bus dream, Wandering through the redwoods of Muir Woods-extended that morning, I felt the dream was saying to me and my generation – the 60’s generation, who battled in and against the Vietnam War:

It’s too soon to retire, to recede, to relinquish all the reins of responsibility to the youth of today and of Occupy Wall Street. We must go beyond helping the social media generation navigate the troubled waters of their lives so a decade or so later they can repair what we’ve allowed to fester.

Yes, we rallied against the seemingly endless war in Southeast Asia, worked to end poverty in America, struggled to decimate hate and discrimination. But under our watch, the rising tide of fascism crossed the international waters, rolled onto America’s shores, so the repressive political system can be exported in a vicious cycle. We’ve permitted the prime time players of a merged business and government collusion, their descendants, agents, and enablers to thrive. We’ve even enshrined them in the pinnacles of power of elected and appointed office.

The world’s young adults — struggling to live their lives, struggling to learn the life lessons we’ve already incultrated while also working to make the world a better place — are drowning.

In the school bus dream, the Coast Guard, helicopters, help of any kind are out of the picture.

The dream’s pleading to my political colleagues who say 9/11 is ancient history; to “progressive” radio/television talk/news show hosts who deny the facts about Barack Obama because he’s a Democrat (in name only) or better than the other guy, or” good” on your issue; to friends whose hopes are dampened, to all of our generation pressed by financial limitations, worn by political warring:

Today’s young women and men need rescuing, literally. While simply living their lives, they are drowning in the rising waters of fascism. We, the generation with the knowledge and know-how of deep politics, must dump despair, fatigue, retirement and return to action now. We have a world worth saving.