My wife asks why I get so emotional about certain issues,
shouldn’t I be calming down a little in my old age and reflecting on issues in
a more calm and composed way, worthy of a grandfather in his 60s?
Well I have tried but I guess it just isn’t in me to just
sit back and just watch world events just pass me by.
I guess I feel a responsibility to make some form of effort
in reacting to certain issues in a loud as I can manner because I am after all,
a BABYBOOMER.
We were and are the largest generation in our history. We
were born after WWII from 1946 to 1964 but really 1946-1955 was enough time for
those returning from the war to create the post-war generation.
I was always proud to be part of the baby-boomer generation.
We represented the NEW and MODERN generation; we were the rock & roll
generation, we were going to change the world.
It did not help that right after high school we faced the
draft for the Vietnam War. We lost over 58,000 of our generation when we were
only in our teens and early 20s. BUT we rebelled, ended the war, became hippies
with long hair and threw out the window all of our parent’s silly ideas and
rules but did we…
Did we change the world; did we make the world a better
place?
Looking around me today, I don’t think we lived up to the
hype and the promise. Yes, we did well and raised great kids and now are
helping raise our grandkids but did we make a difference?
Can we still make a difference? Do we have time to make a
difference? That is only if we care about our legacy; our generations legacy.
Leaving good, smart kids behind is definitely an achievement but is that
enough?
The reason I get so involved with certain issues so
passionately is because I still feel we have not crawled out of the Dark Ages
and remain in many ways, backward. This was not the promise of our generation
to remain unchanged, we were taking society to a new level of enlightenment,
peace and well being but I think we have failed…
And so I end with a poem by Dylan Thomas (1952) that
encourages me…
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at the close of day,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
There is still time to make a difference…
No comments:
Post a Comment