Come Together…Right Now

“You say you want a revolution” – Lennon /  McCartney

Hey Millennials you can rant and rave and dis Baby Boomers all you want, but until you demonstrate that you are capable of making changes that are crucial for our country’s existence, then stop complaining.

And as for the Baby Boomers who think they gave birth to lazy, social-media-crazed children, stop complaining too. Instead encourage them to become a part of their country’s much needed progress. We can’t do alone, again, we need our children to work with us and take over and do a much better job than we did.

Three Generations of Griping! What Exactly Have We Learned?

Said to Millennials by Baby Boomers	Said to Baby Boomers by The Greatest Generation
BB-“You’re an idiot!”	GG-“You’re an idiot”
BB- “You can be anything you want to be when you grow-up. Yes even President of the U.S.”	GG-“You can be anything you want to be when you grow-up. Yes even President of the U.S.” However Barbara Bush and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump should never have added that last bit.
BB-“You’re on the phone too much, put it down and look at me when I’m talking to you.”	GG-“Next time I hear a busy signal when I call home I’m ripping the phone out of the wall.”
BB-“Don’t you ever take a picture of where you are instead of a selfie?”	GG-“What do you mean you put seven people in the VW bug and drove around all night?”
M-“I need a car when I turn 16.” BB-“Okay sweetie.”	BB-“Can I have the car tonight, Dad?” GG-“No, your sister asked first.”
BB-“Why can’t you do anything right?”	GG-“You can’t do anything right, ever.”
BB-“Get off that phone and read a book.”	GG-“Turn off that radio and read a book.”
BB-“I would like you to go to college, but you’ll have to pay for most of it yourself.”	GG-“You will go to college and we’ll pay for it.”
BB-“You’ve got it too easy.”	GG-“You’ve got it too easy.”
BB-“Yes darling you should always question authority.” M’s BB Teacher-“Questioning authority does not mean asking, ‘Why do we have to read this stupid book.’”	GG-“If you get a draft notice you’re going to fight in Viet Nam.” BB-“Why should I fight in yet another immoral war, created to help boost the economy?”
BB-“You must vote. my generation worked hard for the 18-year-old right to vote. Make your vote count.” M-“Yeah, well that didn’t work out did it?”	GG-“You cannot vote at 18!” BB-“Let me see. . .I can die for my country at 18, but I can’t vote for the men who are sending me to my death?”
M-“What? After all these years women still aren’t paid as much as men?” Didn’t you march for that too?”	GG-“You’re what? A Feminist?”

“This Be the Verse”

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

By fools in old-style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy-stern

And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don’t have any kids yourself.- Philip Larkin’s 1971

Even though we totally agreed with Philip Larkin we obviously didn’t heed his advice and went on to populate America with the largest generation ever. Millennials sadly don’t realize that we had parents too. Our parents were the first generation to actually have children because they wanted to and not because they could employ them as farmhands.

This is all thanks to Dr. Spock, no, not that Spock. Dr. Benjamin Spock who wrote excessively on how to raise your children with hugs, laughter, praise, fairness, and lots of love. His first book was published in 1946, the year after WWII ended and the year before babies boomed all over the world. His book was my bible and I used it for my daughter’s first two years and beyond. He was so right-on about everything she did that I suspected she sneaked into my room and read the passages.

I remember that the Greatest Generation believed that he knew how to raise children, but had no business at our Viet Nam War protests. He argued that the war was killing the generation he raised, nurtured, and cared about most. And this was true, 58,000 Baby Boomers perished in that war, leaving a huge hole in my generation and the Greatest Generation’s hearts.

So you see Millennials each generation has their greatness and their downfalls and even their pitfalls.

 

 

The big questions is, “What will your greatness be?

How about-

Ending Global Warming

Making the U.S. a progressive state

Running for office and filling the shoes of the ancient men in GOVERNMENT

Selling the beautiful idea of a SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

Creating a social democracy in the U.S

Free and Equal Education for all schools (After all what part of educating the masses repulses the Republicans? Oh yeah, the educated masses scare them to death, see what it did for the Boomers in the 60s and 70s)

Free Quality Health Care

Paid time off for giving birth for both partners

Paid time off to care for sick children and ailing parents

Strict Gun laws

True belief that war and violence is NEVER the answer

Peace and negotiations as an alternative to WAR

Inexpensive quality CHILD CARE

Increase pay for our workers over CEOs, CFOs, and POLITICIANS

Redefine and re-fabricate our Justice system and prison system

Increase time off for workers

Lessen the greed from Corporate CEOs, CFOs, and politicians