Boomers Should Just Die, Okay … [Part 1]
Doesn’t matter who, but somebody’s got to hang.
Maybe that’s too strong. “Somebody has to pay.” And, that is the American Way.
For just about 250 years, the USA has been a country where John Wayne and Ronnie Reagan, the “good guys” were taught to be the epitome of the “traditional values” of Americer - yes, I misspelled that. A large majority of the “Boomers” believed it.
As it turns out, John Wayne never actually did anything for his country but make money as a hack movie star, including during WW II. He dodged the “Draft” and Ronnie spent his time in Hollywood making propaganda movies for the government. Ronnie never stepped foot on any foreign soil during the same war, when every other fully abled American male either enlisted or were compelled to fight.
So, to me, a genuine real article Baby Boomer, most of those held up to us as heroes were very emblematic of the “Greatest etc…”. When it finally came to light that many of those heroes were actually really deep bigots and much of what our parent generation foisted on us as children, the hypocrisy (the stone cold hypocrisy of our parents) was really deeply hurtful.
Also, that the American History we had rammed down our throats for years and years in our schools was mostly white-washed bullshit.
But we had to have some heroes and the real ones were … well, either not tall enough or just didn’t look good on camera. I dunno, as Americans we have always gone with either the tall guy, the one with the best hair OR the quick talking bully. Our culture assumed, up and until recently that they were all white guys.
So, of course, all our heroes had to also be white.
The “Greatest Generation” -?- . I must say that my own father served in WW II and was awarded the Silver Star and several other medals for “Valour in Combat”. His three younger brothers also served with valour. My father was a wonderful father and grandfather and I loved him very much. But both he and my mother were, basically, bigots and homophobic. Actually my mother was the worst of the two as a bigot and homophobic.
And, my uncles and my whole family going back generations were completely inconspicuous about it. You’d never know by looking at them. They were always respectful and kind towards everybody. But deeper into conversation and you would find that they were honestly straight evangelical white supremacists.
Them and the majority of these members of the “Greatest etc..”. did beat back a couple of the worst dictators and most evil humans and their brain-washed mobs. Millions died. More millions were horribly wounded; had their lives devastated forever and yet they did win. The non-white, female and indigenous Americans were pretty much ignored even though it was often their sacrifices that were the most significant and profound.
The children of that generation, those born between 1946 and 1956 have been labeled “Boomers”. I have heard much denigration against “us” - I was born in 1946.
I have raised six children who are all successful adults. I have been a school teacher for over 30 years. I am very, very qualified to say that most children learn by what they see. Children learn by example, almost exclusively. Most children learn very little by precept. You can talk (or yell) at them forever about not smoking or the dangers of alcohol or being lazy, and if you, as their parent smoke, drink and spend most of your time watching TV, you are a fool if you think your children are going to abstain from any of those things. Especially the lazy part.
So how did I, myself, and my brother become card carrying Liberal Progressives. The answer, like most answers, is hidden in the lead-up text. All of the adults within our Parent Generation tended to be civil to everybody. They showed respect for everybody they came into contact with. So that civility and respect is what my brother and I saw. That is the manner in which we, as a family, acted towards the greater community. We did not learn to become bigots because we never saw bigotry. Even though, in hushed conversation between the adults we lived with (the white Boomers, anyway) did hear a lot of it.
I will break this down further in [Part 2] of “Boomers Should Just Die, Okay …”
Dale C. Peterson
Search Dale Clarence Peterson on Kindle for more of my writing.
