What will they think of us?
What caricature of who we think we are will be pictured by our great-grandchildren?
OK, so we probably won't mind much no matter how unflattering it might be because we shall happen to be dead at the time.
But still, it's human nature to wonder how we'll be remembered, and on what basis our progeny will make their determinations.
Chances are, if they are anything like we are, they won't think much of us.
That's because going back to the time of those strict Old Testament prophets, each generation tends to be a bit more tolerant than its predecessor.
These days, you hardly ever hear about people getting stoned to death for violating the sabbath.
Slavery _ even in the South _ is passé, and Salem, Mass., hasn't burned a witch in ages,
Just in the last century, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in every state of the union.
So, we look back with our superior attitude upon those stone-throwers, slave-owners, stake-lighters and misogynists and tsk-tsk ourselves into believing we are inherently better people than our ancestors.
But we're fooling ourselves if we really think we are nature's last word on tolerance and inherent wisdom.
There's a petition making the rounds of the Internet demanding a formal apology from the British government for its treatment of World War II code-breaking hero Alan Turing.
Turing, named in 1999 by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century, is widely regarded as the father of modern computer science and was indispensable in helping to crack Germany's Enigma codes during World War II.
His work saved thousands of American and British lives from U-boat torpedoes. He was brilliant, a genius.
He was also a homosexual.
Back in 1952, in jolly old England, that trumped any contributions Turing made in keeping the country's vital shipping supply lines open during the war.
We look back smugly at that time and say the world had gone mad. In the United States, Sen. Joseph McCarthy had everybody seeing a communist behind every tree.
In England, there was worry that homosexuals doing government work could be blackmailed into giving the Commies state secrets.
That's because just being gay was against the law.
Like Oscar Wilde, who had been convicted a half-century earlier, Turing was found guilty under Section 11 of Britain's Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885.
Unlike Wilde (or, for that matter, the much more-recent celebrity Michael Jackson), Turing was not accused of being a pedophile.
He was gay.
Not a child molester or other kind of fiend.
Just gay.
In 1952, he picked up a 19-year-old man outside a movie theater. The younger man wound up spending some nights in Turing's house.
When Turing found out that the young man helped rob his house, the genius reported it to the police, who arrested Turing for being a homosexual.
The British government showed its gratitude for Turing's wartime contributions by giving him the choice between prison and accepting chemical castration through estrogen hormone injections.
Turing chose the estrogen. He lost his security clearance, his consulting job and the right to travel to the United States, but he did grow big breasts from all those hormones.
He hated the breasts, and he apparently hated his new, disgraced life.
Two years after being convicted of the dread crime of being a homosexual, lan Turing died after eating half of a cyanide-laced apple. The authorities ruled it a suicide.
CNN reported this week that more than 17,000 people have signed the online petition that urges the British government to "recognize the tragic consequences of prejudice that ended this man's life and career."
We note what a shame it all is that Turing never lived to see even the beginnings of the daily miracles wrought by his contributions to computer science.
We decry the stupidity and intolerance of the 1950s, and wonder how anyone could believe that what goes on in private between consenting adults should be against the law.
What do we think of the people living in that day and age?
There is a more important question.
Today, in our "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" U.S. military, anyone who tells about being gay is thrown out of the service.
Gay couples, including those who have been together for decades in stable, loving relationships, are forbidden to marry in 45 of our 50 states.
If current trends continue, our great-grandchildren will be far more tolerant than we are. They will wonder what all our homophobic fuss was about.
What will they think of us?
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Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.
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