Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

I am in equal parts amused and annoyed at all the recent punditry about the Baby Boom Generation, most of which treats 72 million people as if we were some monolithic whirlwind that just got downgraded to a mere tropical storm – much to everyone’s relief.

Last week on CBS Sunday Morning Bill Flanagan spoke eagerly about “finally” closing the door on that infamous year 1968, with its assassinations, riots and devastating election of Richard Nixon.  Flanagan seems to think that, now that we’ve put a black man in the White House, we can put the political, social and cultural divisions of the past behind us and all sing Kumbayah.

In a recent Daily Beast, Peter Beinart, a fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, opines that the “end of the culture wars” is upon us.  As evidence, he offers the thought that Obama waited until the day after the Roe v. Wade anniversary to rescind the global gag rule, in an attempt to keep his action “low profile.” Sure.  As if the anti-choice zealots will suddenly fold up their fetus pictures and go home now that we have a President who downplays his liberal roots.  The vituperative comments in response to Beinart’s piece make it pretty clear that’s not going to happen. 

This is the kind of thing that led some, certainly not all, Boomers to the ramparts.  We grew weary of real politick and people who weren’t clear on the difference between compromise and selling out.  So we were, er…are, contrarians, and maybe we did lob a few bricks in the culture wars.  But things were not going to change without pushing the envelope, and that’s what Boomers do best.  Our very numbers pushed the envelope, which is how America came to be the land of youth and consumption.  We lived up to our name – Boom! – by shaking things up.  It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.

I get that some people, especially Gen Xers, are sick of hearing “ya shoulda been there” in the 60s.  But remember, you are standing on our shoulders, just as we stood on the shoulders of “the greatest generation.” And we Boomers need to remember that what we did – from the public marches to our own, personal, quiet defiance of custom – was not just for ourselves, but for those we knew would come after us.  So now we need to stop begrudging the fact that many younger people take abortion or voting rights for granted.  They’re supposed to.  That’s why we marched in the first place.

While reports of its death are greatly exaggerated, there does seem to be an ebb in the culture war.  A temporary truce is the only sane response to the current economic catastrophe. Just now, for Boomers of all political stripes, our job is to tame the inner partisan that lies within each of us, waiting to call out injustice and, perhaps too eagerly, to speak truth to power.  Those things were, and remain, important.  But it’s also important that we suspend judgment and shut up for a bit so that our new President has a genuine chance to lead us out of this very serious and very scary quagmire. 

That’s why I’ve decided to give Obama a pass on having Rick Warren give the convocation at the inaugural.  I think Warren’s a bigot, and I imagine he thinks far worse of me.  In the end, though, neither is as important as getting the country back on track, and not just in terms of the economy.  It’s time to clean up our act on the global level too.  After eight long years America is once again on the right side of history.  If some of us insist on citing misdemeanors it will not be helpful. 

That’s not to say that I am going to cut Obama slack indefinitely.  LGBTQ people deserve civil rights and I am going to keep fighting for them.  But first things first.
I hope I don’t die before I get old, and I sure don’t wanna die impoverished with no health insurance.  If the President can get us all on the road toward building the political will necessary to resolve the really big problems, I’m content to let him amble along the median for awhile.  I just hope he keeps an eye out for those who will try to pass on the right.

--Bonnie McEwan