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| The BBHQ Boomer Essays: |
| Our Boomer-In-Charge here at BBHQ, Hershel Chicowitz, writes frequently about current events... from a boomer perspective. He is sometimes funny, sometimes provocative, sometimes a little of each. We hope you get a kick out of our Boomer Essays. |
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I have seen several newspaper articles and televised reports recently dealing with the aging of the baby boomer generation. These stories are obliquely critical of us; they imply that we do not have the right to age and are not due the many fruits of our labors.
I am personally offended by attacks on our generation; I have decided it is high time we fight back. To serve as a tool in that battle, I have prepared a list of some of the burdens unique to our beleaguered generation:
We were the first generation of teenagers in history to have to struggle with the temptations of illegal drugs and underage drinking. No generation before had been so challenged. We were totally unprepared to deal with either. So naturally, many of us used both to enormous excess. But we lived, didn't we? (Lenny Bruce does not count; he was not a boomer.) That says something profound about us! (Neither does Jim Morrison; that was an accident.)
(So was Janis Joplin. And Jimi Hendrix.)
We are the first generation in history to have to struggle with cell phones and driving... at the same time! There is no roadmap for proper behavior in this matter. They did not cover this in driver's ed! How are we supposed to know how to conduct ourselves? We need education; we need laws; we need Congress to provide reasoned guidance on this vexing problem! (And who better than the U.S. Congress to provide reasoned guidance? We need Congress to take care of us!)
We were the first generation in history to have to deal with the threat of an unwanted pregnancy. None before us had been so burdened. We demanded abortion rights; we got that. We demanded the pill; we got that. Yet still, the plague of a possible unplanned pregnancy still hangs over both us and our teenage children. We are all victims.
Oh woe is us!
We are the first generation in history to suffer from post-partum depression. Heck; we invented it; we discovered it. This is our disease! Our society is completely unprepared to deal with this unforeseen and unprecedented plague thrust upon our generation..
We are the first generation in history to have to send our children to public schools. No generation in history has been so penalized. Who ever thought this was a good idea? As Earl Pitts says, wake up, America! Public schools, as a social experiment, are an abysmal failure. And we, the boomer generation, are the big losers.
We are the first generation in history to be constrained by the concept of a permanent, monogamous relationship with a single individual. Whose idea was this? IT DOESN'T WORK!
We are the first generation in history to suffer from inadequate health care. We demanded action; we got HMOs. HMOs suck, so we demanded a patient's bill of rights. When that does not work, we will demand cradle to grave health coverage guaranteed by the U.S. government. Yeah! The government is good at this kind of thing. Health is a boomer birth-right.
Oh woe again!
We are the first generation in history to have inadequate day care for our children. No previous generation has been so hampered with the burden of having to take care of their own children. It is a moral injustice and contrary to all the guarantees of freedom in the Constitution.
We are the first generation in history to have our soldiers die in a bloody war thousands of miles from home. We demanded a memorial to our sacrifice and rested only when the name of every brother and sister who died in our war was permanently etched in stone in our nation's capital. EVERY NAME! At least 1 1/2 inches high and 3/8 inches deep.
We are the first generation in history whose children have suffered from attention deficit disorder! There will never be enough Ritalin to deal with this boomer baby catastrophe.
"No-body knows... the troubles we've seen...."
We are the first generation in history forced to deal with the ravages of getting older. This is a burden too great for any generation to have to bear - and ours is the first. And yet, cosmetic surgery is still not covered by our health care plans. This is blatant boomer discrimination! And yet, do we whine and complain? Of course not.
We are the first generation in history to have our generation's president accused of having an extramarital affair with a subordinate in the Oval Office and lying to a federal grand jury. Unprecedented! No commander-in-chief in history has been so maligned as ours was.
We are the first generation in history to have teenage children who lie to us. How on earth were we to know that that would ever happen?
We are the first generation in history to suffer from racial discrimination and racial profiling - the first ever!
We are the first generation in history to have the mayor of our nation's capital thrown in jail under a murky suspicion of smoking crack cocaine! (We showed them! We not only got him out of jail, but we also re-elected him! Boomers rule!)
We are the first generation in history to suffer the ravages of a fatal, sexually-transmitted disease which we have absolutely no power to prevent or cure.
We are the first generation in history to have to work for an inadequate minimum wage and without a salary to accommodate a reasonable lifestyle. Conditions have never been worse for entry-level jobholders, and we bear the entire weight of this condition on our shoulders. This is a social disgrace without precedent!
We are the first generation in history to treat our children as our friends. The evidence is already beginning to surface indicating that our children respect us more because they like us; they really, really like us! And that is so important. Note how much respect we get from our kids. Listen to their songs... to the way they talk about us. It is working! They like us! We are the first generation in history to recognize this. Historians will one day look back at our generation as the trailblazers of a marvelous level of equality and understanding. "Kum by ya, my Lord; kum by ya."
We are the only generation in history not to have a monument in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the countless sacrifices we have made. Do we have to wait until a thousand boomers are dying every day to recognize this enormous social injustice and do something about it?
Oh, woe; and woe again; and thrice woe!
Boomers rule!
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We're open to offerings from visitors to BBHQ. If you have something to say of interest to boomers, write it as well as you can in 800 - 1,000 words, and send it to us. We can't guarantee we'll publish it, but we'll surely consider it.
If you like what we're doing here at BBHQ, please help us by buying stuff through our link to Amazon.com:
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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