Any X'ers out there wondering "What happened?"

[Taverner]

If you were like me, you spent your 20's in the 90's...full of hope that things really were getting better... I mean the Berlin Wall came down, Bush lost the election and music was finally getting better - all that hair farm metal crap was out and Nirvana and Screaming Trees were in.

Then Cobain died, Congress went to the Repubs, Rush Limbaugh opened his fat face and our own government started acting more and more like the one that fell in Berlin.

So were you like me and wondering - What happened?

[Dookus]

1. even worse...

I was born in '61. Grew up in the cold war, having air-raid drills, learning how evil Russia was in school. Reagan's deficits seemed insurmountable, but it didn't matter 'cuz we'd all end up dead in a nuclear blast anyway.

Then... the cold war ended, the deficits disappeared, the economy was awesome. I had great jobs, for the first time in my life it seemed we might actually survive.

Then... Bush II. End of story.

[mistertrickster]

8. Ditto that, Dook--after protesting Vietnam, can you believe that

we're bogged down in the same shit 40 years later.

It all started with Reagan and the re-writing of history. He thought the past was a movie script that you could just re-shoot the ending to.

Rambo came out with the immortal line in the mid-80's, "do we get to win this time?" as if the only reason we didn't win last time was that some bureaucrat tied the soldiers' hands.

We didn't win because we couldn't win, period. Deal with it, America, don't live in a fantasy.

We're not going to win in Iraq either, because YOU CAN'T FORCE SOMEONE TO BE LIKE YOU AT THE BARREL OF A GUN. Sorry for shouting.
The French couldn't do in Algeria, the British couldn't do it in the US, India or Kenya, even the f***ing Soviets couldn't do it in a pissant country like Afghanastan.

[ACK]

2. Yes here is my rant -- more personal less politics for me

Ok, I watched SLC punk last night and saw a lot of my own experiences in it.

I began to think. Am I that much different?

I grew up in a small Southeast Ga town raised pretty much by my grandparents.

I was a white suburban punk trapped in a rural hell.

I wanted out so bad.

After college I started teaching in Atlanta. I had to go back home because I ended up in so much debt doing Substitute teaching and listening to asshole Principals laugh when I told them I was a male History teacher with no coaching experience. I was a dime a dozen trying to get in teaching Secondary Ed Social Studies.

I had the flannel and the tatoos and I hung out at the 40-watt club and I smoked the shit on the front porch of my buddies house making Low Country Boil and drinking Rolling Rock.

I wanted out again so bad.

So, I went to paralegal school thinking that I had the research experience with my history degree and ended up oddly enough getting hired doing computer tech support for a software company that made software for you guessed it lawyers.

I even met a woman I love and we got married.

We love each other and we had a child.

So, there I sat with a kid in the asshole Burbs of Atlanta hating everything about the place I lived.

Sure, I gave to progressive organizations and I fought and campaigned and did my part. Or at least I like to think I did.

Sure, I never owned the BMW but I did like Iced Lattes and could not help look back on pictures of me with spiked hair and ripped t-shirts and my old black Chucks thinking was I becoming one of those fucks I hated?

I hopped around jobs like everyone in the tech world has to right before the layoffs come down or the funding runs out. It is the way of things. But at least I like what I do. I dick around with computers and after the manager promotion went back to tech Unix Sys Admin role quick because I hated it. But still I wondered if I was becoming just another asshole.

When CNN where I worked looked like they were going to cut after the AOL merger, I jumped to Northern VA. I hated the idea but my wife was practical and right. Where the hell has the tech jobs and great school systems? Did I really want to send my kid to a private school so they could get an education?

So we moved and I worked for a defense company but in their business not weapons divisions. I still felt dirty. I hated it and I got out and work for a cable company doing work on the VoIP team as a Unix Sys Admin.

Still, I sit in a big house in Northern Va, richie territory. I still ain't got the BMW but my wife has a Volvo station wagon. I have an old Honda.

I still wear Vans and listen to hardcore punk.

But am I just another old fart sold out?

Am I just organizing and contributing to Dem and other orgs to soothe my feelings of guilt?

As I sit here I cannot say I am truly that unhappy. I have a good job, two great kids and a loving wife. I have a roof over my head. The only thing that really irks the crap out of me is the boring suburban hole I live in.

Why the fuck does it take so much money now for me to give a life to my kids that I would not feel ashamed of if I compared it to the life my grandfather gave me?

I don't know anymore.

[DustMolecule]

6. Whoa.....

You've got someone who loves you (and sounds like you love and respect her too)....you've got waaaaaaaay more than most people. Something very very important - don't forget that!

[Taverner]

7. Awww man I hear ya

Very similar story myself. After college I did the Peace Corps for 2 years, met my wife and we went to grad school. I went for Journalism, and got a Masters in it, only to be sidetracked by a tech support job for an ISP.

I bounced around and amazingly survived the layoffs, and now I'm doing tech support for a data storage company...but I still feel somewhat empty...I have a beautiful kid and a great wife but still...I wonder...

[NightTrain]

3. Not particularly.

Frankly, I was never that thrilled with Clinton. But of course, compared to what we're stuck with now, the man was positively angelic!

[CrownPrinceBandar]

4. All the time, brother............

[sundog]

5. the 90's

were fab years to be alive -- i feel lucky i got to experience them to the MAX before all hell broke loose

[Taverner]

9. I loved em too

[rumguy]

10. I've often thought about it

It's almost like the 90s were a different universe. Even after congress went repig in 94 Clinton still won reelection. Then pubs overreached in the Clinton scandal and lost seats in the 98 mid-terms.

Then the election was stolen and now we are all living in the wake of the disaster monkey.