Baby Boomers: A Legacy Of Action Or Apathy?
Today is the 60th birthday of George W. Bush, reminding us that the baby-boomers--those of us born just before World War II, during the post-war years, during Korea, and just before our full-blown involvement in Vietnam began--are now running the show. While the media is busy calling Dubya "The Chief Boomer," the rest of us Boomers are wondering what happened to our generations.
While we protested the long, dragged out involvement in Vietnam because of incidents like My Lai, the lying reports of General Westmoreland and Robert McFarland, the indiscriminate bombing of Vietnam and its neighbors, the secret experiments conducted in New York subways by military weapons groups, the infiltration of peace activist groups as well as militant groups like the Black Panthers, the arrest of protesters and the use of indiscriminate police powers, the massacre of students at Kent State... and so much more... we now are sitting back watching the same dynamics occur once again because we are afraid.
Being a member of the tail-end of the Baby Boomer generations, I have seen it in myself. I have become more cautious than I was in my youth. I drive differently, perhaps even more safely than when I first got my driving privileges. I have trouble adjusting my eyes to different tasks and my optometrist is urging me to get bifocals. I cannot march in the streets like I did in the late 60s and early 70s. In fact, I even go to bed a lot earlier than I used to when I was young. But I think what I am most aware of at this age is the apathy that has taken over our country.
We used to work at being connected to our neighbors, our community, our town, our region and our nation. We used to stand up for our principles in a public way that got noticed. Our bars, coffee shops and our barber shops were filled with discussion of the politics, current events and exchange of ideas. While these conversations were often heated and raucus, they occurred. Today, we dismiss these discussions, making the argument that we are not able to discuss politics, religion or government without becoming uncivil.
But haven't we done a disservice to ourselves and our posterity? Our education statistics demonstrate a likelihood that we have pushed our apathy to the forefront. Our standardized testing approach has, in most states, excluded issues of government, civics and history from the testing process. The effort to impart partisan views of history and government in our text and curriculum standards is at an all-time high, including a revised effort to push creationism back into the public curriculum... despite clear evidence that this agenda is based upon the tenets of a specific religion, religious view and religious agenda. Our dropout rate is at an all-time high for the post-WWII era. Our colleges and universities are importing scholars in science, math, engineering and technology fields, while our own educational spending is being slashed, cut and undermined.
One of the great baby boomer developments, the interstate highway system, which also turns 50 this year, is in need of repair, expansion and redesign, but we won't spend the money to revamp it. Instead, we are spending billions of money wastefully in Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel and elsewhere. Our own efforts to provide for national security, safety and disaster relief have been undermined by our involvement in useless and unnecessary foreign involvement, while we have ignored getting involved in places where our intervention would have made a difference (i.e. Darfur, Rwanda).
I remember my generation for its involvement in local, regional, national and international affairs... speaking out against injustices that affected not only ourselves, but others. We protested Apartheid and played a small part in bring it to an end. We protested Vietnam and brought our troops home because there was no effective plan for the ending of that war. We stood for our American values of decent treatment of others, tolerance and respect for ideas and achievement. We made scientific and medical breakthroughs happen, including trips to the moon and organ transplants.
I think we have gotten too old in our hearts. Most of us have retired from our world. We don't vote. We don't get involved. We don't educate ourselves on the details of issues and events, preferring an eight-second sound bite to an in-depth, detailed report... or even a fairly thorough summary. We have gone to school, gotten our degrees, and have dismissed the greater purposes for having achieved those advanced studies.
I am a bit disappointed in our Baby Boomer Generations. Partyly because we have raised children that have not followed our earlier examples, but lounged in an atmosphere of indulgence and luxury... and abdicating social responsibility in favor of self-focused action. We are so busy making the buck, buying electronic gadgets and paying for our kids' education that we have failed to really educate, genuinely lead, and effectively deal with our issues.
If I were younger I would celebrate the Baby Boomer generations' failure to remain actively involved in our world in a meaningful way, by smoking a joint, dropping some acid or dancing some disco (a form of protest against our own apathy). At least then I could rest on our laurels. I would, however, prefer to have a bunch of us get together in Washington DC to demand our withdrawal from Iraq, better funding for education, programs for free college to high achieving students, and welfare policies that make sense... or perhaps an immigration policy that really works... a helath care policy that doesn't screw the recipient of care and line the pockets of the all-too-wealthy... fair banking practices that eliminated gouging, red-lining and profiteering via extraordinary fees... an environmental policy that doesn't change every other week... or any number of things that need to be addressed and is being igniored or manipulated by corrupt (morally or legally) politicians.
Perahps I will just go back to sleep and dream of a better time... better leadership... and a more just world. Wake me when we're ready to get back to taking on the world on our own terms.
While we protested the long, dragged out involvement in Vietnam because of incidents like My Lai, the lying reports of General Westmoreland and Robert McFarland, the indiscriminate bombing of Vietnam and its neighbors, the secret experiments conducted in New York subways by military weapons groups, the infiltration of peace activist groups as well as militant groups like the Black Panthers, the arrest of protesters and the use of indiscriminate police powers, the massacre of students at Kent State... and so much more... we now are sitting back watching the same dynamics occur once again because we are afraid.
Being a member of the tail-end of the Baby Boomer generations, I have seen it in myself. I have become more cautious than I was in my youth. I drive differently, perhaps even more safely than when I first got my driving privileges. I have trouble adjusting my eyes to different tasks and my optometrist is urging me to get bifocals. I cannot march in the streets like I did in the late 60s and early 70s. In fact, I even go to bed a lot earlier than I used to when I was young. But I think what I am most aware of at this age is the apathy that has taken over our country.
We used to work at being connected to our neighbors, our community, our town, our region and our nation. We used to stand up for our principles in a public way that got noticed. Our bars, coffee shops and our barber shops were filled with discussion of the politics, current events and exchange of ideas. While these conversations were often heated and raucus, they occurred. Today, we dismiss these discussions, making the argument that we are not able to discuss politics, religion or government without becoming uncivil.
But haven't we done a disservice to ourselves and our posterity? Our education statistics demonstrate a likelihood that we have pushed our apathy to the forefront. Our standardized testing approach has, in most states, excluded issues of government, civics and history from the testing process. The effort to impart partisan views of history and government in our text and curriculum standards is at an all-time high, including a revised effort to push creationism back into the public curriculum... despite clear evidence that this agenda is based upon the tenets of a specific religion, religious view and religious agenda. Our dropout rate is at an all-time high for the post-WWII era. Our colleges and universities are importing scholars in science, math, engineering and technology fields, while our own educational spending is being slashed, cut and undermined.
One of the great baby boomer developments, the interstate highway system, which also turns 50 this year, is in need of repair, expansion and redesign, but we won't spend the money to revamp it. Instead, we are spending billions of money wastefully in Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel and elsewhere. Our own efforts to provide for national security, safety and disaster relief have been undermined by our involvement in useless and unnecessary foreign involvement, while we have ignored getting involved in places where our intervention would have made a difference (i.e. Darfur, Rwanda).
I remember my generation for its involvement in local, regional, national and international affairs... speaking out against injustices that affected not only ourselves, but others. We protested Apartheid and played a small part in bring it to an end. We protested Vietnam and brought our troops home because there was no effective plan for the ending of that war. We stood for our American values of decent treatment of others, tolerance and respect for ideas and achievement. We made scientific and medical breakthroughs happen, including trips to the moon and organ transplants.
I think we have gotten too old in our hearts. Most of us have retired from our world. We don't vote. We don't get involved. We don't educate ourselves on the details of issues and events, preferring an eight-second sound bite to an in-depth, detailed report... or even a fairly thorough summary. We have gone to school, gotten our degrees, and have dismissed the greater purposes for having achieved those advanced studies.
I am a bit disappointed in our Baby Boomer Generations. Partyly because we have raised children that have not followed our earlier examples, but lounged in an atmosphere of indulgence and luxury... and abdicating social responsibility in favor of self-focused action. We are so busy making the buck, buying electronic gadgets and paying for our kids' education that we have failed to really educate, genuinely lead, and effectively deal with our issues.
If I were younger I would celebrate the Baby Boomer generations' failure to remain actively involved in our world in a meaningful way, by smoking a joint, dropping some acid or dancing some disco (a form of protest against our own apathy). At least then I could rest on our laurels. I would, however, prefer to have a bunch of us get together in Washington DC to demand our withdrawal from Iraq, better funding for education, programs for free college to high achieving students, and welfare policies that make sense... or perhaps an immigration policy that really works... a helath care policy that doesn't screw the recipient of care and line the pockets of the all-too-wealthy... fair banking practices that eliminated gouging, red-lining and profiteering via extraordinary fees... an environmental policy that doesn't change every other week... or any number of things that need to be addressed and is being igniored or manipulated by corrupt (morally or legally) politicians.
Perahps I will just go back to sleep and dream of a better time... better leadership... and a more just world. Wake me when we're ready to get back to taking on the world on our own terms.
posted by Jim Downey at 6:05 AM
1 Comments:
It just goes to show that 'baby boomer' labels an extremely broad demographic -- 77 million in the U.S. alone. I guess that explains how so many of them turned out Republican.
By the way, I can't protest on the streets like I used to either, and I am just 48.
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