Hey ..... fellow Boomers ....... its over, you know.

[Stinky The Clown]

Our generation is now part of the past. Sure, some of us are still pretty young. Many of us are still very much au courrant. But we are, in fact, the past.

It is arguable that we, as a generation, have done a pretty shitty job. The WWII generation got more presidents than we did. They influenced the country more than we did.

We gave us Clinton and Bush. After all the supposed change in the Sixties, we got two Democratic presidents - Carter and Clinton. And Carter wasn't one of us. While he is probably among the top five finest people to ever occupy the office (that statement is unconsidered - I just threw it out there, knowing it is about right) he accomplished very little. Clinton accomplished much more, but most if it, now, has been undone by the only other Boomer president. That makes the total for our generation a big, fat zero. Or, perhaps more rightly described, a net loss.

This was all brought home to me in a simple exchange between Brokaw and Gregory as Gregory was handed the keys to the car (MTP) at the end of today's edition. Gregory said he'd would greatly appreciate being able to lean on Brokaw for private help and ongoing participation on the program. Brokaw said he would be happy to do so, but made it clear to Gregory that it was time for him to find the bright young journalists and opinion sharers to come on the show.

The bright young journalists.

The vital, new young president. His young and beautiful wife and two small, lovely children.

The administration's Boomers are simply in support.

Our kids are grown. They have independent lives and their own families. We are fathers- and mothers-in-law. We are grandma and grandpa.

A generation is passing.

And it is us.

I'm not sure I'm very proud of the small volume of good we've managed to accomplished, and am probably ashamed of much of what we did accomplish.

All that promise we felt in the Sixties.

What have we squandered?

[spanone]

1. well, been feeling that more & more lately.....

[CTyankee]

2. You know, husb., we should really be proud!

Yeah, we raised our kids when things were better but I was a single mom during a stretch of that time when it wasn't better, so okay, we did what we had to,just like our forebears. Right?

The wheel turns, the seasons change. We cannot undo what was done. Let's rejoice that today we shared in our part of bringing the change we tried so hard to bring in elections past. We did what we could do. We were right and they were wrong. NOW IS OUR TIME.

[jaysunb]

3. We laid the foundations for this era in the 60's

we did our bit and like you say, it's time to let youth have it's day.

[hlthe2b]

18. Yes.. much Boomer effort was foiled by some of the "GREATEST"

Generation... Nixon belonged to that generation. So did Reagan. But, I certainly don't hold the "Greatest Generation" guilty for delivering us a man who would order young war-protesting baby boomers shot at Kent State, nor any of the litany of horrors brought forward by their ilck.

[Ewellian]

4. What we did was

raise our children well. They elected Obama.

[tnlefty]

99. Belated welcome, Ewellian!

I'm at the end of the boomer years, so I missed a lot, but I'm still teaching my kids about worker's rights, seeking the truth, the horrors of wars...

Yes, my oldest voted for Obama, with reservations about his centrism, but with great delight about putting the nightmare of the Bush** yrs. to bed, and to hopefully see the crimes of this misAdministration prosecuted. :hi:

[lostnfound]

102. You know, that IS true..no generation prior

would have elected someone who looked like him.

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Generational generalizations are generally pretty worthless, in my experience.

I say that as a Gen X'er who watched my generation vilified as useless slackers with nose rings, until someone figured out that those computers we had been fucking around with on our off hours from the coffee shop might actually be useful for something.

[eleny]

6. It's our way of thinking that made Obama possible

And don't you forget it, Pappy.

[anonymous171]

7. The 60s was a time of monumentous (and good) change.

You guys did well, even if you went all reactionary during the 80s.

[hlthe2b]

8. .Obama (by most definitions of boomer years) is the very tail end...

of the boomer birth years.... As, am I. No matter... One can "slice and dice" that definition as you please...

But:
Every generation has its strengths and weaknesses, depending on what challenges are handed them. When you think of the science and technological achievements (man on the moon, for one), I certainly do not believe the Boomers have squandered all.

I'm happy to have a new generation coming in with the refreshed idealism. But, there's quite a bit of that left in the Boomers. Arguably, one hell of a lot of boomers made a Obama Presidency a possiblity and ultimately a reality.


So, how about a little less self-flagellation. This splitting off the generations is not only not helpful, IMO, but seems inherently to go against the very organizational and governance tenets promoted by our new President.... :shrug:

[notadmblnd]

9. Well since the majoriy of voters in this country are the oldsters (50 and beyond)

I will not take blame or accept credit for the last 20 years. IMO, boomers have not yet had the opportunity to leave our mark on politics. However, I guess you could say I'm on the tail end of the boomer generation anyway.

[Hardrada]

10. I always thought the Boomers were more talk than action

and more sound than fury. I was born in 1944 and enjoyed an idyllic existence until the "boomers" all showed up.

[Deja Q]

13. And if nobody went "boom", none of us would be here today.

:yoiks:

[Hardrada]

60. You're right, I......guess...

[oldnslo]

23. I came along in 1941, and you're right, we had it pretty good

Until all the boomers came along, scaring the actuaries, and leaving social security and Medicare all aquiver.....I guess even the adults needed something to play with during the war years.

[Hardrada]

57. We War kids never got any press. But we did not need any and

have never been into the seemingly endless self-congratulation the Boomers seem to need so much.

[Waiting For Everyman]

29. Yeah, we "showed up" in the streets cuz we were being DRAFTED

but I guess those were imaginary bodies filmed on the news, cuz we're all talk, right?

[Mari333]

45. yes, I remember

and I REMEMBER when women , who were raped, or beaten, were BLAMED for it. there were NO sexual harassment laws. NONE. If your employer wanted to feel you up, tough shit. if you complained, your fired.
I remember working on a womens hotline and trying to help women with my OWN money get out of the house..we were chased down by angry husbands with GUNS once..the police didnt respond when a woman was beaten back then, they just considered it the womans FAULT.
and if u were raped TOO BAD it was YOUR fault back then.
and i remember that if you wanted to use birth control tough shit. dont have sex.
if you got divorced in the 50s you were considered a slut.
if you got pregnant you were considered a slut.
and the DRAFT..
yes there was a DRAFT and you ended up whether you liked it or not in VietFckingNam.
and segregation...lets not forget lynchings, hangings, and whites only .
people who didnt experience the 50s havent got a clue.
yes, the baby boomers did a lot.

[Hardrada]

55. Well, we older rads were glad you decided to join our ranks

and together we did indeed make a dent in the Establishment.

[hlthe2b]

63. "Greatest" Generation unhesitatingly drafted their own kids...

into that debacle known as Vietnam. I remember (with horror) the story of my much older male cousin and the reasons for his mixed feelings toward the grandfather I'd adored. Seems my grandfather was on the draft board for the rural county and made sure (still not sure what that entailed) that John's number was called--claiming it would instill some needed "discipline" in the boy....


Whew...I have nothing but respect for the WWII veterans, but that resultant perspective led to some warped decisions, IMO.

[Waiting For Everyman]

94. They sure did. They were all for VN.

Against us, their kids. I was appalled at that generation's behavior. And they're NOT sorry. "My country right or wrong", that's them.

It was despicable what they did, and didn't do. No, beyond that.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. So... you had an idyllic existence until you were 2 years old?

Yeah, moving out of diapers has that effect on some.

[Hardrada]

50. It was actually in Academia where we were tranquil

until the Fall of 1964. I remember small classes and a time for existential introspection before your noisy mob arrived.

[Warren DeMontague]

110. Unfortunately, I can't roll my eyes, here in the header of my post.

I can do it here, though.

I was born in the late 60s, Jack. So I think you're speaking of someone else's "noisy mob".

To be fair, though, I certainly felt like some of those punks born in the early 70s were noisy brats with no appreciation of the classics or the finer things in life.

...:eyes:

[Deja Q]

11. 60s idealism gave way to 80s greed. Why?

Possibly because all the free stores and free love and free VD clinics weren't sustainable; especially after Charles Manson and other sleaze like him did their nasty things, people realized that a society still requires people to put in what they get out and vice versa. Doing the all-free-all-the-time routine got boring and people wanted to make up for it, with unofficial compound interest.

I wasn't around in the 1960s and am basing all of this on inference and conjecture.

All I know is, adjusted for inflation, American workers started losing real take-home pay around 1973 and it hasn't turned around since. (A union person sent me some graphs and statistics about take-home wages from 1950 to the present (circa 2000). I later threw them out.)

[jaysunb]

31. You forgot to mention those that were killed or bloodied

while trying to insure voting, civil and womens rights among other things.

And the free things weren't really,free.

:evilfrown:

[Deja Q]

"ensure" is the word, but I'll agree regarding my myopia on the issue...

My post was too focused on middle class economics (take-home pay) and not the whole picture.

So the TV shows that feature characters going into a "free store" in San Francisco to grab garments weren't historical documentaries but in fact works of fiction?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give-away_shop

Nope.

[hlthe2b]

40. Geez... HT, that sounds like the RW stance on boomers...

Yeah, MLK died for all the "free love" sins, rather than to try to ensure civil rights to millions. Ditto Bobby and JFK and many others (kids at Kent State, for instance).

The conservative fervor that caused the changes you point to, was ushered in by Nixon, Reagan, Bush I--- none who were baby boomers, might I remind you.

It is hard not to blame the previous generation for the problems faced by the current, but ths is a very worthless activity, IMO and only serves to divide us at a time we so desperately need to come together for the change we supposedly all supported. Nobember 4, 2008 ring a bell to anyone?

[Deja Q]

62. You know, I am tired of this labeling nonsense.

There are DUers who say that only right wingers support offshoring and point to posts showing Democrats who openly speak of blind support for it.

I know Republicans who are against offshoring. Are they not Republicans?

Democrats get the blame for bailing out the banks and everyone else, even though it is the PRESIDENT who signed it in the end, and he's still a Republican.

And you probably did not read my other responses, which is understandable, but I've already admitted my response to which the two of you responded (so far) was myopic and in the form of workers' pay only. The first time I stray from meandering into dozens of tangents and *kaboom*. That was my fault. I'll write a whole book on inferences to the era, pro and con and otherwise, and see how quickly people tune out. At least this way we have a semblance of a conversation.

And when will the labelers realize they too live in their own bubbles? The offshoring simile proves, in real life, it's not so easy to label with one-sided intent.

And I am aware and appreciative of MLK's good points. He was also a womanizer, something many wouldn't always say is good but that's for other people to decide. He did far more good, however. JFK womanized too. I think it's disrespectful and not a sign of love or anything else to marry someone then cheat on them.

And please blame the OP for "serves to divide" - the OP started it. The rest of us contributed opinions, which has led to deeper discussion. When the discussion is all said and done, will we be more divided? You tell me. You've accused me of being a right-winger at the get-go. I am an independent centrist, who happened to vote for Obama too.

And may I remind you that Nixon also won in 1968 because of perceptions of the Democratic party, in tandem with the hippie movement of the time. :evilfrown:

Questioning is always good, but I would question those that question by being the most outrageous examples. Maybe Nixon would otherwise have lost in 1968...

In short, the 1960s was a decade of triumph and tumultuous tribulation. And, in reality, no single phrase could begin to sum up everything that took place.

(Oh, and if it wasn't for the nerd and geeks, what was the foundation for what would become the internet would never have been made. :P Everybody hates nerds and geeks... )

[hlthe2b]

87. I think we just were trying to get you to see the complexities...

and it seems that you are starting to see all the varied issues in the context of the times. ;)

[Maccagirl]

90. Thank you

I'm sick of the RW meme that says the Boomers were (and still are) the drug-addled me-monkeys that accomplished "nothing" but still are so self-obsessed that can't handle middle age and their "downfall".

[Bluebear]

108. Yes, when you think of Baby Boomers, Charles Manson is always the first thing you think of.

:eyes:

[Tansy_Gold]

12. Hold on a minute.

I'm a boomer. I was born in 1948.

I am not old enough to be Barack Obama's mother.

The post-war baby boom is considered to have lasted from 1946 to 1964, which is roughly the child-bearing years of the post-war brides.

Barack Obama is one of us.

He's not a 20-something. He's not even a 30-something. He's a 40-something, and that means he's old enough to be the father to a 20-something.

It's not just who voted for him. It's who raised him and what times he was raised in. He's a child, literally as well as metaphorically, of the 60s and the idealism born in and of the 60s.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was almost exactly the same age as my mother, almost to the day. He was not a child of the 60s, but of the Depression and WW2, but do we see him as any less a leader of the 50s and 60s? (The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which thrust MLK into the civil rights limelight, began in 1955.)

I don't think we squandered a thing.


Tansy Gold, damn proud

[hlthe2b]

33. Exactly...

:thumbsup:

[JerseygirlCT]

89. I was going to say that

He's only slightly younger than I. And though it doesn't always feel it, I'm still a boomer. I do seem to have one foot solidly in the boomer category and one out - we're definitely on a cusp. But technically... Obama is still a boomer.

And boy oh boy does he have a mess to clean up.

[Ishoutandscream2]

14. I've always looked up to boomers

I am a month younger than Barack - while I am technically a boomer, I don't consider myself one. I consider myself a "tweener," too young for Vietnam and too old for MTV.

I thank God for what the boomers did in the 60s. If anything, ya'll made things more interesting. You protested the war in Vietnam, and you marched for civil rights. Because of your efforts, the draft went away, and the voting age moved down to 18. You were a movement, a force.

You gave us interesting times. A black and white world became a beautiful color. Long hair on men, great music, and testing and questioning all the norms - I thank the boomers for all those things. Yes, boomers made mistakes, but what generation hasn't?

[Deja Q]

27. At the time, questioning was good...

now we need to question, if we truly value today's situation, why we let kids get pregnant at such ridiculously young ages. Amongst numerous other things. When does "boys just being boys" turn into "that behavior is unacceptable", and "What punishment will get the kid to learn?" Not just doping children up with selective sedatives or stimulants either.

No more generalities.

It is not normal to wear underwear outside one's regular clothes, or to let said clothes droop down around said underwear. In the midst of questioning norms, people forgot the one thing that can never be questioned: Respect for others. And if that case in wal-mart isn't proof enough, people do not respect each other any more. (or the poll asking if anybody would cheat on me, but I digress...)

No more playing into stereotypes. You cannot be inciting thought if all you do is play into them. Whoops, thinking of a certain forgettable TV producer who made "rimming" a prime time viewing event in England AND digressing too... :puke:

[Ishoutandscream2]

48. I believe I see what you mean

Maybe we have overstepped ourselves a bit. We were at one extreme 40 years ago; now we approach the other extreme. Good post.

[Lint Head]

15. I am a boomer myself. 'What we are', are the pioneers of the

Revolution that is being televised. The 1960's are not dead. That decade was a fertile ground for new ideas that the election of Obama is the result of.

Now we must go further and demand 'The End to Corporate Rights' as if a corporation is an individual.

The Constitution does NOT allow rights for corporations.

Blackwater will be the next corporation to torture US citizens. I believe they must be stopped.


Blackwater Scans Baghdad


:dem:

[Gman2]

64. You are too correct. But, the kent state shootings made us blink, as Palin

would say. We went limp, but for a few fatalities. As Naomi Wolfe says, when the real persecution starts, she is going silent like the vast population. There are few heroes. To do right, risking life, with no upside, is unhuman, and yet, there have been a few. I am almost that stupid, and will take the rest of my life to achieve absolute disregard of personal consequences. When it gets just as bad going along to get along, then the powers that be had better just get outta the way. That is the tipping point. Then, no power can stand. Our power is great, but our recognition of our power is muted, or deaf. Just common belief, can overturn most despots. With, of course, those afforementioned idiots that make the early sacrifices, with health, and freedom. Let us idiots take the hill, as that is our purpose. Then, the hordes can pour thru the opening we have greased with our guts. As it ever was!!!

[acmavm]

16. Wow, bad day?

[Kutjara]

17. I can never work out where these so-called Generational divides actually lie.

I'm 46 (47 in a month), and I've always thought I was at the tail-end of the Boomer generation. If that's the case, then Obama is, too. Are you saying that I'm actually a Hip-n-Trendy(TM) GenXer? I hope so, because that would allow me to tell my 10-years-younger wife (who likes to call me "old man") that I am in fact young and "with it,"...er...dude.

So where falleth the line? Am I (and by extension, Obama) a young Turk, poised to tear down the evil of the Establishment, or an old codger who just want the kids to get off my lawn?

[Ishoutandscream2]

25. We are, Kutjara. I turned 47 in September

We are tail enders, and I don't consider us Boomers or Gen Xer's. We're kind of a "lost generation" in ourselves. What are we able to tie ourselves to? It all seemed pretty uneventful for our age group, in my opinion. Oh, yeah, we had disco.:silly:

[Kutjara]

35. Coupled with the fact that, apparently,...

...from mid 1961 to mid 1963, there was an unexpected major dip in the birth rate, so there are far fewer of us around than there should be. Not only are we a "lost generation," we're kind of an invisible one, too. Or we were, until a certain gentleman with the initials B and O entered the spotlight and shined it on all of us.

[Ishoutandscream2]

51. We were invisible, weren't we?

At least, until Barack came along. Yes, we have something (or someone) to hang our hat on.

[Kutjara]

52. I like the fact he's from my little generational blip.

It makes it feel as if he's even more "my President." For the first time, I can directly relate to the kind of formative experiences a President had and the environment he grew up in. Even the childhood photos I've seen of him could have been my own (if I wasn't a pasty and pudgy white kid, that is). I'm sure we even had the same tricycle. :)

[Ishoutandscream2]

66. Exactly. I see his childhood photos, and they look like MINE!

The clothes, the toys, the cars in the background. Yes, exactly! You are making me think, Kutjara. Thanks for that.

[htuttle]

69. Invisible? Hell, no. Our in-between generation invented punk rock!

Well, sort of. The Sex Pistols were all boomers, but who was buying their tapes? Us!

Although, we do share blame for skinny ties and Flock of Seagulls...

[grasswire]

19. we must have done something right

A woman was nearly the Democratic Party's nominee, and an African-American WAS the nominee and is going to be the president. The path to this was marked in the 60s.

The forces that allowed Bush and Cheney to trash the planet and the country are not boomers. They are of the post WW2 generation. The elite industrialists, the Rumsfeld and Rehnquist and GHWB and Murdoch and Moon and all the ghouls -- they are not boomers. They imposed their will on a weak George W.

[carlyhippy]

20. But....seeing how downward things are going, do you see a reincarnation of the 60's?

Our young people, will they have had enough and will take the reigns and evoke change? I think so, or at least I hope so.
Carly

[polichick]

21. That vital new young president IS a boomer!

[Deja Q]

30. No, he is an articulate, educated human being who loves and values his family

My turn to question the norm of generational labels... :evilgrin:

[polichick]

39. Oh hell, if he's all those things forget it. :)

[hlthe2b]

46. yes... and technically ALSO a BOOMER!

;)

[October]

71. No. There are Boomer charts that don't include 1961

People born in 1060's are children of Boomers. We don't feel part of that generation.

[lumberjack_jeff]

72. I was born in 1962, and I'm definitely not a gen-x er.

[hlthe2b]

78. The official definition has always included those years..

Do a bit of research... You've got about 8 or us here telling you the same thing. I have to go to work, or I'd get you the links--sorry


I'll add a very quick google result based on "definition baby boomers" for the time being:

Definitions of Baby Boomers on the Web:

* The approximately 78.2 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 according to the US Census Bureau (www.census.gov). ...
www.thrasherfunds.com/learn/glossary.htm

* People who were born between 1946 and 1964.
www.esomar.org/index.php/glossary-b.html

* The very large generation born in the United States and Canada between the end of World War II and the mid-1960s.
www.thenewowners.com/glossary.html

* Born between 1946 and 1964, Boomers are approximately 100 million strong. By 2015, they will represent 35% of the US population.
www.demandmade.com/terminology.html

* Those born between 1946 and 1964, when birth rates rose sharply, and now a popular target group for marketers.
www.allamericanlist.com/gmainB.asp

* The generation of people born in the post war years, between 1946 and up to 1965. This generation, by its sheer size alone, has filled jobs in the ...
artichoke.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!ED05923E956A6843!1541.entry

[Missy Vixen]

80. Born in 1960, so am I or am I not a Boomer?

I'd like to think that the "tail enders" are going to make a statement of their own in the next eight to twelve years.

:woohoo:
Julie

[corpseratemedia]

67. I think that people born in the '60's had less economic opportunity

than people born in the '50's and '40's. I don't know why we get lumped in together. And we had to suffer through reagan education budget cuts and right to work bs laws etc. Basically our voices were diminished economically and culturally, imo. Plus, kids my age were watching captain kangaroo in '68, fringe scared me.

On the other hand, y'all apparently weren't in my hs senior class. Boy were they reagan lovers. I would get nauseous listening to them.

when i was teaching i had a student blame "my" generation for ruining it for theirs. I asked what year was she born, "1967." I said I was born in '64 and that I was sorry!

[Mari333]

22. GRannyD says "Quit yer bitchin"

LIve Free or Die baby

[Waiting For Everyman]

24. That great WW2 gen squandered it FOR us.

It's kinda like on a personal level... my dad living in his mid-90s now, so that I don't ever get an inheritance from both sets of landed grandparents, who gave it all to them (for us grandchildren). He will outlive me, and has effectively outlived any use it could've done me already.

Same thing, only written large.

And no, I'm not going to go off quietly into some corner now... after all, I'm forced to compete in the workplace with 20-30-40 somethings, and I'm a single (widowed) woman expected to be "vital" enough to make it on my own too, so I will not shut the fuck up and be wallpaper for THEM TOO now. Hell no.

[MichiganVote]

26. If your only criteria is the office of the presidency, then your argument may stand.

'Course, the fact is, the 2000 election was a joke and the 2004 race wasn't any better.

[Titus Andronicus]

28. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. What's wrong with that as a legacy?

[Deja Q]

32. VD, premature death, and real music that's not been manufactured.

1 out of 3 isn't a good record, but the legacy far transcends the biggest catchphrase of them all.

[hlthe2b]

49. Wow... we didn't have VD before the Boomers? WOWZER

not to mention premature death....:shrug:

[Mari333]

73. LOL

[RainDog]

53. that's a crock

if you're unaware, boomers were instrumental in the integration of music - "race records" were the 1950s, Motown was the 1960s, as was the folk revival, Bob Dylan, the cross-pollination of "world music" began in great part because of David Crosby...

as we've dicussed before, VD was a huge problem earlier in history... it's pretty inconsequential in terms of the 1960s, especially with the widespread use of penicillin... and, please, are you a little obsessive-compulsive about venereal disease?* hey, guess what, most people do not get vd, even tho they have sex!

...premature death? uh, as tho WW2 was not a situation in which premature death was much worse?

The 1960s gave white Americans "real music." Before the boomers, you had Pat Boone singing "Tutti-frutti." And now we have have Pat Boone singing AC/DC, but, oh well, some things are always with us.

*I know you're an aspie (my son is too) and when I mentioned the OCD-ish thing, I'm not saying it as an insult, btw. I'm saying it as in.. hey, what's up with that?

anyway, don't be too quick to put down boomers - it's a favorite past time of freepers, and they aren't the best company to keep, imo.

:hi:

[catnhatnh]

107. I've got a touch of that too...

...But I call it CDO, in it's proper, alphabetical order...

[stillcool]

36. I came of age..

with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I think what shaped my world most was the women's movement. I can't know how much it affected me, but I know I chose a different path than women before me would have gone without great difficulty. The Vietnam War had a huge affect on me too. I think the country as a whole was battered and bruised by the deaths, and living dead that returned from that war. I also think that we have been headed down this path since WWII, when function was placed before form. It wasn't who you are, but what you had. And my theory is that it was a result of those returning from war that were dead inside. The outside has to matter more than the inside, when there is nothing inside but that which is necessary to hide from.

[RainDog]

37. civil rights, women's right, gay rights, choice, citizen activism on a wide scale

bringing down a sitting president (Johnson) and exposing the lies used to justify Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin), removal of a president who said "if the president does it, it isn't wrong," i.e. Nixon, the largest middle class in the history of American society, the integration of schools, neighborhoods (more work needed there) and workplaces, a HUGE pushback against conformity... RFK and LBJ's work to bring electricity to Appalachia...

those are all boomer accomplishments.

of course, Bush and Cheney are also boomers, so the term is a little too vague. And if you led the boomers but weren't one yourself - are you considered a boomer or not?

I get tossed in with the boomers but I was in elementary school when all the action was taking place so my experience of boomer-dom was via Walter Cronkite... but I think boomers have a lot to be proud of.

[polichick]

41. Don't forget the environmental movement!!!

[RainDog]

65. yes, thank you!

the boomers were/are the most progressive generation since the turn of the last century.

Other boomer-era things: public television, highway beautification/wildflower programs (both LBJ admin.)

Unemployment insurance (JFK) - it was astonishing to me when I learned how JFK had to fight for unemployment insurance in the 1960s when the UK had had it since WWI. -- we see the same thing over the last couple of decades with universal health care.

FM, album-oriented radio rather than top 40 bubblegum...

all-in-all, not a bad record.

[polichick]

98. I really am proud of all the accomplishments you mention...

...wish some people were up on their history enough to get it. (They just want our pot and the best music EVER!)

[Enthusiast]

105. And LSD! nt

[anonymous171]

44. They also voted for Ronald Reagan

[polichick]

47. None that I know of - thank God!

[RainDog]

56. Reagan was the 1st genX president

His election corresponded with genX coming of age and voting for the first time. since young voters are likely to continue the same voting patterns (a good thing for democrats with all the young voters for Obama) the ascendancy of "Gringrich conservatism" is not considered a boomer legacy.

[anonymous171]

58. Whoops. My bad.

Now that I think about it, Reagan would be the Gen X president. His whole "as long as I get mine" attitude is totally gen x.

[RainDog]

68. hey, I have to live with coming-of-age during disco

a moment that will live in infamy... I can honestly say, however, that I never owned a BeeGees album. In any case, I can also say that the late 1970s sucked.

[polichick]

92. Yep - I remember saying WTF, who are these people??

[Warren DeMontague]

112. What a crock of shit. You can't blame Ronald Reagan on Gen X.

Let's have a look at the demographics for the 1980 and 1984 elections, shall we?

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_80.html

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_84.html

Maybe you meant to blame his re-election on Gen X, since (using the standard definition of Gen X as starting at 1965) 1984 would have been the first election someone born in 1965 would be able to vote in. And yes, in that election, voters 18 to 24 went for Reagan 61% to 39% for Mondale. However, voters 25 to 29 also went for Reagan over Mondale by a pretty similar margin, 57% to 43%. And Voters 30-49 went Reagan over Mondale by 58% to 42%. Something like half of the voters in the 30-49 age bracket would be considered "Baby Boomers". ALL of the voters in the 25-29 bracket would. But most importantly, most of the voters in that 18 to 24 yr. old bracket would ALSO be baby boomers, and not "Gen X", and in fact, the ONLY Gen X voters in that election were 18 and 19 years old, hardly a decisive slice of the electorate.



So to try pin Ronald Reagan- or even Ronald Reagan's 2nd Term- on "Gen X" is complete and utter bullshit.

Baby Boomers, and older voters, put Reagan in the White House. Not "Gen X".

Want to know the first President Gen X put in the White House? Bill Clinton, Thank you very much.

[Pithlet]

120. Wrong! Gen X were kids then. I was 8 years old when Reagan was elected.

My first vote was for Clinton.

[Stinky The Clown]

84. Cheney's not a Boomer

[RainDog]

116. how so? he was too busy to serve in Vietnam.

that would seem to make him a boomer to me.

[Blue_In_AK]

122. Cheney's not a boomer - he was born in '41.

[geckosfeet]

38. Ahhh. Time to kick back and watch someone else fuck things ups.

[leftofthedial]

42. the "vital, new young president" is himself a baby boomer.

the baby boom is generally considered to include anyone born from 1946 until 1964. Obama was born in 1961.

Nearly everyone of consequence on his team is a boomer. Just because he has spawned a cadre of zealous Gen Xers and a few Yers, it doesn't make him younger than he is.


Sadly, our accomplishments were not primarily political. We left politics to some of the worst among us. Largely though, that is due to the machinations of the fanatical right wingers of the previous generation who set the stage for the destruction of democracy in our republic. We were playing a game that no longer existed. Thanks to the prosperity bequeathed us by our parents, our generation embraced narcissism and greed as no previous generation in history. I'm no fan of our generation, but you're being far too negative.

[tularetom]

43. I ain't got no generation

I was born in 1941. By most accounts I'm five years older than the oldest boomer, and my parents were of the WWII generation. My oldest child (born 1963) is among the youngest of the boomers. Whatever we were we never even got our chance to fuck things up. The country went right from daddy bush (born 1924) to Clinton (born 1946) a 22 year gap.

I guess grandpa McLame or John Kerry was the closest thing we ever got to having one of us in the WH. How would we have done? With Kerry it would have to be an improvement over what actually happened. With McSame, probably not so well.

I guess we'll never know at this point. By the next election I'll be 71 and nobody would consider any of my contemporaries to be vigorous enough for the presidency. Besides, nobody will seriously be able to challenge Obama at that point.

So I guess we'll continue to be the forgotten generation. But don't feel bad boomers. Whether or not you fucked it up is still a moot point. At least you got a chance to fuck it up.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

54. technicaly, Obama is part of the Boomer generation

I believe.

That being said, we've yet to have a President born in the '50s, like I was. So yeah, I feel old, having a President who is 10 years younger than me. But I didn't take part in the Yuppie greed thing, and don't really know anyone that did--hippies are alive and well in my neck of the woods, and they hold the same ideals they did 40 years ago.

[October]

79. It's an unnamed generation

Born to Boomer parents, yet not Gen X.

I grew up with all the benefits of the liberal mindset though. Too young to understand the 60's at the time, but feeling equality and civil rights were the norm.

Boomers started it - and the "Obama Generation" BELIEVED.

Thank you all!!!!!!

My heart is full.

[Skittles]

115. It is "GENERATION JONES"

I myself am a member:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones

[Hamlette]

59. not at all true

sucks to get old but we done good

the baby boom is kids born '46 to '64...18 years. We had presidents from that generation for 16 years. I didn't vote for Bush so don't blame me that half of that sucked. Plus, Obama was born in 1961 so he is technically a boomer. I'm claiming him. So we had MORE presidents than WWII generation.

We had much to overcome, segregation, racism, sexism, homophobia. We're not there yet but we've come a long way to realizing many dreams. That was OUR generation. The boomers.

That the right wing of the boomer generation seems meaner and more evil than my dad's generation of GOP is not my fault.

I've always thought the "greatest" generation was overrated. Yeah, they went to war but so did many of us. The fact that they won their war and we didn't isn't because OUR generation sucks. It's that Johnson/Nixon sucked.

lots more reasons not the least of which is The Rolling Stones.

[Mari333]

77. I like being old. n/t

[housewolf]

61. We baby boomers led the country in other ways

While the Civil Rights movement was started by those a little older than we, it was the Baby Boom generation who got behind and ushered in the Civil Rights movement. And the Women's Rights movement. And ended the draft. And ushered in all this fabulous technology. And ushered in the end of the Cold War. And develeped all sorts of advances in medicine, longevity and health care.

No, we weren't perfect. All through this years electoral process I kept telling people that we need to turn the government over to the younger generation because we (the baby boomers) can't fix today's problems because we helped to create them. In my opinion, we lost it when we changed from the hippies to the yuppies. The masters of Wall Street that brought us this current debacle are baby boomers.

But there is much progress that's occurred over the past 30 years that we, the baby boomers, had a hand in and that we can take pride in. Like all of mankind, we're not perfect... our era has its blacks and its whites and its shades of grey.

:hi:

[fla nocount]

70. Bite me, burn a fattie with the kids and rediscover yourself.

The fat lady hasn't sung in this life yet...only a boomer would know what that means.

[Mari333]

95. dont bogart that joint, my friend

[Blue_In_AK]

123. I'm an early boomer, 1946

and I figure I still have a third of my life left to live since I'm not planning on dying until my 90s. I'm not ready to go quietly into that dark night.

[lumberjack_jeff]

74. People try to put us d.... d..... d....down.

Just because we get around.

[JNelson6563]

75. Indeed, the time of me, me, me, is over motherfuckers.

And I say that as a tail-end boomer, born 1963. :toast:

Julie

[Mari333]

76. NEXT FIGHT: AGEISM

and we will kick ass.

[hlthe2b]

103. that's for damned sure... and very much past due...

[snooper2]

118. Guess you didn't see that South Park episode

The old folks were killing South Park residents with their cars, so they took their licenses away. Stan's grandpa got arrested for driving without a license, and the AARP showed up like para-troopers and took the town over.


You know how the boys got them to give up?

They locked the buffet up from the inside :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[roamer65]

81. The boomer -Gen X borderline seems to be around 1963-65.

I was born in Jan 1965 and I am definitely a Gen X'er.

Obama is boomer, but a very late one.

[alfredo]

82. Bob is willing to pass this song onto the next generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ_XwLSN45I

on edit - while he was still young and pretty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgECKj9LSH4&feature=related

[Le Taz Hot]

83. Honey, if you want to pull up a rocking chair

and reminisce about the things you obviously were not a part of during the 60's and 70's, that's totally up to you. For those of us that DID make things happen, we're still out there making things happen, including helping to get your precious President Change elected.

[Mari333]

85. !!!

[Stinky The Clown]

86. Honey ......

.... you'd probably do better to speak for yourself rather than saying what I did or didn't do when and where.

K?

[Mari333]

88. it was a compliment.

i agreed with what you said.

[Stinky The Clown]

91. I'm sorry.

Obviously I misunderstood. Forgive me, please?

:hi:

:blush:

[Mari333]

93. hugggggs

:hug:

[Le Taz Hot]

96. You gave yourself away with this . . .

"It is arguable that we, as a generation, have done a pretty shitty job. "

If you consider:
Women can now get credit without a male to co-sign for them;
Women now have access to jobs they NEVER had access to before;
Women can now bring rape charges against a man WITHOUT being interrogated as to what she was wearing to "ask for it;"
Women are closer than ever to pay equity;
Women can obtain birth control without being married or having a male vouch for them;
Women can obtain safe, legal abortions;
Potential employers can no longer ask if you are married, how old you are, if you have children or are planning to have them;
People of color no longer have to sit at the back of the bus;
People of color now have access to places everyone else has access to, including the presidency;
People of color now have access to higher education;
People of color can now marry Caucasian people and vice versa in all 50 states;
The environmental movement started in the 1970's;
Music went through several distinct movements within a 10-year-period and is STILL influencing today's artists;
The Beat Poets will go down in history as the most influential in the 20th Century;
The Youth Movement proved to be one of the most activist and influential in the history of this nation;
It's the Boomers who run the soup kitchens, take in the runaway teenagers; and run the homeless shelters . . .

If you think all of the above (and pages more that aren't listed) was a "shitty job," I say you could not POSSIBLY have been involved in any of it or you would not have made that idiotic assertion in the first place.

The next frontier: Equal Rights for the LGBT community. We're not going anywhere.

[Mari333]

97. amen as i said in an earlier post

i remember when , if a woman was beaten, tough shit. the police didnt come to the house. they just ignored it. i worked on a rape crisis line, and when women were raped they didnt take it to court. it was always her fault.
i was fired from 2 jobs when the boss tried to feel me up. There were NO sexual harassment laws back then. none.
i wish i could build a time machine and let some people go back and experience what it was to live back then. not knowing if they would be drafted, having no legal recourse at all when you were beaten or raped, having no voting rights if you were black, or no rights at all, living in a world where only straight white males had any rights whatsoever.
people who reminisce about the 1950s as being some wonderful time seem to not remember this side of it.

[Stinky The Clown]

106. Actually, I **live** a goodly part of that

My life is surrounded by strong, talented women.

My business partners are women. We've been together since the days when they would have been lowly briefcase carriers. And our partnership is equal, not token. They can sign checks without me and they can 'fire' me. We have been together for longer than many people have been alive.

My lawyer, my dentist, my doctor, my vet, my accountant ....... all women.

My business is one with lots of gay people. I hang with gay people.

Your list is a good one, but most of those efforts started decades - generations, even - earlier than when my generation had power.

Its sad that you chose to attack me personally rather than address the issues more broadly. But whatever floats your tiny little boat.

[Waiting For Everyman]

100. I wouldn't want to be any other age, and

I wouldn't trade a minute of it - being a teenager and young adult in the '60s and early '70s. It was all "larger than life", and well worth the experience of it. Since then has pretty much sucked, the best of it has not even come close. We'll see what Obama brings.

[Mari333]

101. yes, it was a hell of a time to be around

and i was naieve back then. i didnt see that change takes time, and flows and ebbs, it doesnt work in a straight line.the pendulum is always swinging back and forth. but i do think the push that came from the 60s was as needed as the push that came from the union organizing of the 30s and those huge pushes have brought us back and forth, but ultimately forward in many progressive arenas.
sometimes a whole generation is merely there to set the stage.
i like being old now, and i look forward to passing over. most of my family already has. i guess its not my time to go yet, guess i still have some work to do here.
peace out.

[tnlefty]

104. Well, I'm at the later years of the Boomers, and I just listened to

Crosby, Still, Nash and Young's, 'Teach Your Children Well', oh, I was an older Mom when I got started.

I've taught my children many things, but I focus on what they don't learn in school as they've gotten older. The labor rights movement, the civil rights movement (the names that are left out), and what our government does in other countries, basically for corporations. My kids know the history of that rat bastard, Milton Friedman, and watched the black and white footage of the coup in Chile.

I try to ensure that they know the failings of our government both here and abroad so that they are prepared to make the world a better place.

Hopefully they will be stalwarts and good stewards of tomorrow. I'm still trying. :hi: Oh, my oldest is 18, so I'm no where near done yet.

[Stinky The Clown]

109. Our kids are 34 down to 21

They were all proud to vote for Obama.

[earth mom]

111. Obama is a boomer-I'm less than a year older than him. Your post doesn't make sense to me.

:shrug:

[demodonkey]

113. Speak for yourself buddy, NOT ME.

I'm a late boomer (sometimes called Generation Jones) and OBAMA IS MY GENERATION. I take life as it comes, and keep learning and growing every year. I sincerely believe I haven't even begun to make my contribution to this planet yet.

I will be "over" when I am dead -- be that tomorrow or fifty years from now.

So if you want to be "over" and old, you go right ahead. BUT SPEAK ONLY FOR YOURSELF, not a whole generation, and certainly not for me.

On edit: Dammit, I was a little kid in the sixties. A very little kid.

[Kablooie]

114. Peace, man. Love. Sock it to me and who made these brownies?

[graywarrior]

117. I felt the same way for a while now.

Makes me sad.

[Marr]

119. Do these generational groups have meetings or clubhouses?

If so, I've yet to be invited.

These generational labels and lines are serious bullshit. I can't believe anyone would feel guilt, or pride for that matter, for being part of a generation. It seems to me like a desperate grab at finding a personal identity.

[Bucky]

121. You! Gramps! Why aren't you out on that ice floe yet? It's time, already.

What an unnecessarily harsh post, Stinky. You're the generation of Carl Sagan & Al Gore, too. It's not all about the alpha male, ya know. What about ending the Cold War? What about the internet & the Kyoto Treaty and doing more damage to racial & sexual prejudice than any other generation in history?

What about Dave Barry?!!

[Vinca]

124. Wow - cheer me up why don't you? Makes me want to go Rascal shopping.

:wtf:

[Erin Elizabeth]

125. My parents were/are boomers.

What I think is a good marker for the success a generation has is how well they raised their own kids. And I think Generation X turned out pretty darn good. ;)

[Hannah Bell]

126. um, obama's a boomer: b. 1961.

"Baby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom(1946-1964)"