Lighten Up

So lighten up, already... How many people are still mad at Herbert Hoover?

Traitors Among Us?

Paul McCartney celebrated his 64th birthday in good time--not a lot of fanfare, but we Baby Boomers did take note. The whole thing was rather bittersweet. Paul is a true marker of our Generation, versatile, accomplished artist and highly successful to boot, but nonetheless a romantic. I heard a news report on Paul's birthday that he admitted feelings of sadness on his 64th birthday--not that I blame him. It is a cruel irony that such an accomplished person also falls victim to the nasty stuff that Life can hand out. As another great of our Generation said. "Everybody must get stoned"--and I don't mean the weed.



Another famous guy has also celebrated a birthday recently--none other than President Bush. George W. has turned 60, making him, by most opinions, a Baby Boomer. Interesting thing though, there are those of our Generation that don't want to include Baby Bush in our numbers. Weren't we the Generation that was going to make a big difference in the world, make it all better, bring justice to the world, etc.? Frankly, I don't trust any politician any farther than I can throw an elephant, or a donkey for that matter. As a Baby Boomer who's past the half century mark and closer to 60 than I'd like to admit, I've experienced, seen and done enough to have come to the conclusion that the average guy or gal (even more so) is more often than not kicked or stomped. We Boomers still find it painful to admit this fact; we so badly wanted to right the world and have one big happy family--guess again.



Below is a snippet from one of my favorite Blogs, Aging Hipsters. A recent post laments the fact that Baby Bush, by most counts, is one of our Generation (Follow link below, opens in new window, to read the entire post.)



"… No, not Bush, his 60th birthday. Confronted with the stark reality that this man is actually a member of the Baby Boomer Generation I shuddered, retched slightly…
Back then, we fought "The Man" and recognized "The Establishment" as the enemy. I guess we knew there were spies among us, but the battle front was drawn mostly along generational lines, so we ignored the rare exceptions. How foolish that was!
Thirty years later we have a generational Tory (and his right-wing Tory militia) running our country. Geeze, couldn't we have introduced George and Karl to Alice B. Toklas' brownie recipe back in 1969?"



I don't know about this. Wish that life had been and still were so simple. From my experience as a college student in the Southwest/Bible Belt, the lines were never that clear. Yes, we all looked and sounded much the same, but I soon learned that a scratch below the surface still revealed a lot more information. I'll never forget discovering that "Mr. Young Republican/Re-elect The President (Nixon)" was the biggest dealer on campus for whatever high one wanted. And many of those cool hippies that smoked, toked, got down and wolfed down Alice B. Toklas brownies were George Wallace supporters. Even back then I would have bet my last brownie that their white robes and pointed hoods were stashed away in their closets.



Baby Bush a Tory? I don't know about that. In my humble opinion, he's just being what he is. Our generation was not hallmarked by its fidelity. What was Free Love all about? From my experience, most of us couldn't deal with it anyway. It may not be pleasant for us to admit, but with all our noise and goings-on, we couldn't and still can't change human nature. Remember David Hapgood's 1974 book,The Screwing of the Average Man, how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? We Boomers are no more willing than members of the "Establishment" of our Generation to give up any measure of power or control. Think back to '73-'74: oil crisis, energy shortage, and slumping economy. How many of us well educated (better than any previous generation) were happy about being relegated to jobs way below our expectations? Didn't we see that as a loss of control and power--selling cosmetics at a drugstore counter instead of designing the labels? I would surmise that George Bush is not so different from the rest of our Generation or any generation. He just had the good fortune to have been born to money and power (Them that’s got the gold make the rules), and like most among us, is not giving up anything that he doesn't have to.



Onward & Upward,

~Paula