Letters to America: The Jetsons and all that Future Jazz

It seems to me, there was a time where America dreamt of greater and more outlandish things; the impossible, one might say.
In light of a struggling economy, many of those dreams feel as though they've fallen to the wayside.


Where is the hoverboards-and-flying-cars fantastic future I was promised in the 90's?

Any fans of Back to the Future in the house tonight?

Why are car companies still troubling themselves with miles per gas gallon anyway?  

Shouldn't they all be running on water by now...

And, what of teleportation and time travel?

Is research to reduce car emissions and global warming really taking precedence here?

 America, don't you know, teleporting to and fro our daily biz stands to reduce emissions too.

Did a society of philosophers, dreamers and questioners just stop dreaming altogether?

America, for shame!
Where are your lofty priorities? Did you lose sight of humanity's goals?
How long must Americans dream of dining with an impeccably mannered Rosie the robot or C-3P0 before finally attaining those sweetest of future visions? When do we bask in the dappled light of our daily nutrition uptake routine?

Most importantly, when does it start feeling like the future around here?
The science-fiction cartoons, movies and books I was exposed to as a child, name these years of 2010, 2015, 2020 and so on as the shining, golden future. While many ideas featured in these cartoons have already come to fruition, we are a long ways off from clean living in the skies. From my perspective, it's still a rather bleak and littered world.

Then again, maybe I'm simply a child of the 90's who will forever have a bit of Gak under my nails and see neon purple, green and pink splats with eyes closed.

It is highly likely that my perception of the world is irrevocably skewed.