Posted on 06/19/2009 10:46:38 AM PDT by Daveinyork
Last weekend I attended my niece's high-school graduation from an upscale prep school in Washington, D.C. These are supposed to be events filled with joy, optimism and anticipation of great achievements. But nearly all the kids who stepped to the podium dutifully moaned about how terrified they are of America's future -- yes, even though Barack Obama, whom they all worship and adore, has brought "change they can believe in." A federal judge gave the commencement address and proceeded to denounce the sorry state of the nation that will be handed off to them. The enemy, he said, is the collective narcissism of their parents' generation -- my generation. The judge said that we baby boomers have bequeathed to the "echo boomers," "millennials," or whatever they are to be called, a legacy of "greed, global warming, and growing income inequality."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Wow, graduation sucks these days. Used to be pranks at the ceremony, uplifting speeches, parties and fornication afterward. Now its just nihilistic whining...yuck.
Very good.
How about a legacy of godlessness, hedonism, "not my responsibility", junk science, politcal correctness, and liberal guilt trips?
Ain't that the truth. I'm not apologizing for the MEEEE! generation any more than I'm apologizing for slavery.
The job now is not to raise them but to re-educate them and show the word of God and the founders to them.
Same old same old:
Jimmy Carter’s Malaise Speech, 1979
by Jimmy Carter
Good evening.
This is a special night for me. Exactly 3 years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States. I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.
During the past 3 years I’ve spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the Government, our Nation’s economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you’ve heard more and more about what the Government thinks or what the Government should be doing and less and less about our Nation’s hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.
Ten days ago I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject — energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?
It’s clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper — deeper than gasoline lines of energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as President I need your help. So, I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.
I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society business and labor, teachers and preachers, Governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, …
http://www.rightwingnews.com/speeches/carter.php
Same old same old:
Jimmy Carter’s Malaise Speech, 1979
by Jimmy Carter
Good evening.
This is a special night for me. Exactly 3 years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States. I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.
During the past 3 years I’ve spoken to you on many occasions about national concerns, the energy crisis, reorganizing the Government, our Nation’s economy, and issues of war and especially peace. But over those years the subjects of the speeches, the talks, and the press conferences have become increasingly narrow, focused more and more on what the isolated world of Washington thinks is important. Gradually, you’ve heard more and more about what the Government thinks or what the Government should be doing and less and less about our Nation’s hopes, our dreams, and our vision of the future.
Ten days ago I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject — energy. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of legislative recommendations to the Congress. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?
It’s clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper — deeper than gasoline lines of energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as President I need your help. So, I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.
I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society business and labor, teachers and preachers, Governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, …
http://www.rightwingnews.com/speeches/carter.php
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Steven Moore wrote pro-illegal alien ediotorials in the WSJ and because of them I quit The Club For Growth. I also cancelled my WSJ subscription recently as they fawn over Obama and Murdoch ruined the paper.
“How about a legacy of godlessness, hedonism, “not my responsibility”, junk science, politcal correctness, and liberal guilt trips?”
Exactly. The Baby Boomers are the most evil, selfish, perverted, satanic generation America has ever produced.
The presidential sweepstakes seem to have skipped the boomers. There have only been two boomer Presidents, and the post boomer generations are electing already. Those boomers who have run are pretty ridiculous - Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, etc.
They weren't born that way, they were indoctrinated by Socialists who infested this nation's government, media, and institutions (of science and education).
How about after 20 years of Clinton, Bush, and Obama, we try something OTHER than a Baby Boomer president?
Hello, Barack Obama is a baby boomer. On the cusp but he’s no baby buster.
“I also cancelled my WSJ subscription recently as they fawn over Obama and Murdoch ruined the paper.”
The WSJ has been liberal for as long as I can remember, except for the editorial page, which, unlike other rags, has not enforced ideological conformity on the news pages.
The Millenials, of course, are going to destroy us all.
I could take most of what he said seriously, up until this point.
$45 trillion net worth, my ass. The only way anyone could arrive at this conclusion is by not counting our future unfunded liabilities. If and when the day comes that foreigners stop lending to us, this claim will quickly be exposed as the mountain of B.S. that it is.
The judge said that we baby boomers have bequeathed to the “echo boomers,” “millennials,” or whatever they are to be called, a legacy of “greed, global warming, and growing income inequality.”
I thought it was the current generations, Y, X, and baby boomers (everyone old enough to vote) irresponsibly, selfishly, and arrogantly leaving future generations (my innocent children) enslaved to a mountain of debt. It is taxation without representation on future generations and it is completely immoral. They aren’t even old enough to defend themselves—yet. I have no doubt that they will hate past generations for squaundering the wealth and liberty of this great nation and enslaving them. I know I despise all those in my Grandfather’s generation who voted to enslave me to Social Security.
This subject seems to come up fairly often lately. But for anyone with some knowledge of US history and government the past forty to fifty years, they know that much of the change people now object to was implement by the Greatest Generation, in the years from about 1960 until about 1992.
The Boomers were not in positions of authority and influence enough to affect much change until the mid to late 1980s, and even later until they were a majority in Congress and had the first Boomer president in 1992.
My wife recently sent me an email. I am 60 and picture myself as the old man in this story.
*****A self-important college freshman walking along the beach took it upon himself to explain to a senior citizen resting on the steps why it was impossible for the older generation to understand his generation.
“You grew up in a different world, actually a primitive one” the student said loud enough for others to hear. “The young people of today grew up with television, jet planes, space travel man walking on the moon. We have nuclear energy, ships, and cell phones, computers with light speed ...... and many more”
After a brief silence, the senior citizen responded as follows.
“You’re right son. We didn’t have those things when we were young... so we invented them. Now you arrogant little sh*t what are you doing for the next generation?
Yep. It was the GI generation that gave us the Great Society and Stagflation.
I don’t blame baby-boomers for consumption - I blame them instead for giving us soft-statist-socialist culture and destroying any knowledge of and respect for the American Republic.
Where’s a rotten tomato when you need one?
The Baby Boomers are the most evil, selfish, perverted, satanic generation America has ever produced.
I would exclude the conservative baby boomers:
1)They were the swing votes that got us Ronald Reagan in 1980.
2)Many were the JR NCO’s and and JR officers in the military who stayed during the late 70’s despite the Democrats best efforts to cut off the military’ knees.
3)Many were the architects of the technology boom of the 1990’s.
...and I’m a Gen x’er giving credit where credit is due....
No, I would blame the New Deal and the Great Society for doing that. Guess who supported those programs? Hint: It wasn’t the boomers.
True - FDR gave us the New Deal, but the Boomers took it, and added drugs, anti-Americanism, fashionable-academic Marxism, free-love, and healing crystals, to give us the new-age Nazism we are steadily entering.
And, after about thirty years of continual growth, it was a Boomer Republican Congress who forced a Boomer Dem President to sign the first meaningful welfare reform act (1995?), since welfare programs were passed into law by Dems in the 1960s.
And, now, it was the post Boomer Obama who gutted some of the welfare reforms passed by the Boomers
Lots of reckless statements being made all around blaming the Boomers for everything. But a little knowledge reveals that they are responsible for far less than they are blamed for. The assorted Commies, socialists, red diaper babies and fellow travelers among the GG brought about most of the changes, and guilt-ridden inheritors of unearned wealth such as the Kennedys.
One thing boomers have been very good as is feeling guilty, even when we are not really guilty. You are correct. A lot of what went wrong with America is the result of the two generations preceding the boomers, but the legacy of boomers is pretty mixed, as it is for most generations. Since I’m only 59 (and a half) I’m not finished creating my legacy. I’m just getting warmed up.
“Where’s a rotten tomato when you need one?”
Didn’t she just break her elbow?
Very true. Boomers lived through the Civil Rights Era and many took on a load of guilt they've been carrying around ever since. And the '60s radical turned conservative David Horowitz has written about how some older socialists and fellow travelers were poised and ready to exploit the upheavals of the '60s, and they did exploit that era for all it was worth.
It almost hiccoughed the entire auditorium and I felt someone give me an attaboy pat on my shoulder.
After the pledge, I turned around a saw a middle aged woman that looked at me and said, "I got it"
And the delights of moral equivalence where innocents are just as guilty as the bad who cause trouble for them.
I blame them for expecting the younger generation to grow up sooner so they can hand over the reins of responsibility sooner.
Son graduated college in 1996. Had to listen to the speaker bash Jesse Helms.
Made me sick to listen to the idiot.
“...was implement by the Greatest Generation, in the years from about 1960 until about 1992.”
My Dad (RIP) hated FDR and Kennedy - I never understood that as a kid.
My Mom (91 this year) doesn’t have cable so still gets her news from ABC or whatever. She commented that “Well, I didn’t vote for him, but the New Deal got us out of the Great Depression, so I think Obama’s New Deal will work too.” As an adult - I don’t understand that! I gently try to inform her about the realities of the New Deal and FDR - but to so many of that era he is viewed as a savior.
Ping
Boomers didn't give us those things, libtards and their sheep did. While there are boomers among them, many of us aren't... casting us all in the same mold is pretty ignorant, IMHO
My nephew graduated in 95 and I had to listen to America bashing in general. However, at least there was a prank at the ceremony.....streaker girl runs on stage, shakes her huge wally's at the graduates, then runs off. I went from frown to smile in seconds, although I absolutely do NOT approve of public nudity, but if its going to forced on me then a cute lady with big ones makes it less offensive.
Kinda like blaming an entire generation for the faults of a subset of that generation ... you were trying to be ironic moronic, weren't you?
LOL......thanks for the laugh. Surely needed it today.
The speaker at my son’s graduation was Steven Bochco of NYPD Blue fame (at the time)
Those New Deal programs did help some destitute individuals and did provide some public works programs that benefited specific communities. That probably looked like improvement to many, but such government spending just does not revive an economy in recession or depression. We recently saw the quotes (during the stimulus debates) from Roosevelt era officials acknowledging that the programs did not end the GD.
It might not be worth it to try and convince your mother of that, or most who actually experienced those times.
Feeling defensive? :)
My generation IS environmentally responsible for trashing the present, but not for reasons the author may have had in mind. Because of the antinuclear protests my generation were famous for, we're paying $3 for gas today and energy independence is even more of a pipe dream now than it was back then.
Re: “............My Dad (RIP) hated FDR and Kennedy - I never understood that as a kid..............”
***********
Mine too— actually both parents (RIP) grew up Republican and had lots to say about what transpired over time. They reserved their biggest ‘hate’ for FDR, however. They insisted until their dying days that the New Deal was a BAD deal for the US and would impact it negatively forever.
BTW, my father was also vehemently against any thoughts of Colin Powell running for POTUS, decades ago when that was first discussed, claiming he was NOT presidential material. And it wasn’t about race — NOW I understand what my dad was talking about. At the time I foolishly thought Powell would be just fine.
I refuse to blame any generational group as a whole for our troubles — this ‘blame must always be assigned’ garbage has got to go.
Nihilism is a great seller these days.
I’m a 60’s radical turned conservative, and I remember those older socialists exploiting our feelings of guilt, pushing us further and further to the left.
Let's see, I've awaken before 6:00AM every week day for over 40 years to get up and go to work in order to support my family ... it's what grownups do. I've paid my bills, paid my taxes, raised a family and tried to live my with integrity.
So, nope, no defensiveness here ... just an unwillingness to abide the uninformed generalizations of a bunch whiners.
The slippery slope we're on was started by, and is still being reinforced by, people who simply don't believe individuals should take responsibility for their lives ... and that's not a club populated exclusively by people born between 1946 and 1964.
Oh you have that so right!
“It might not be worth it to try and convince your mother of that, or most who actually experienced those times.”
What is odd is that her family worked hard for themselves, scrimped, saved, etc. With no help from the gov’t. She knows what it means to be independent. I think it is not so much what she experienced, but what she heard from the likes of Walter Cronkite over the years that has her believing that big government is the cure to some of our problems.
Jesse Helms was a true gentleman...and a great lover of his country and its people
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