Baby boomers can't let go of the past and look to the future

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 3/20/04 | Ruben Navarrette Jr

[qam1]

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[dogbyte12]

Around 2010-2020, we are going to be in hell. Combine baby boomer narcissism, with being senior citizens. Oh man will it be ugly. Free Prune Juice and hip replacements as constitutional rights.

I always challenge the baby boomer lefties who brag about their generation stopping Vietnam, that it took 10 years after Gulf of Tonkin for the war to actually end. Even if you accept their self inflated egos and they did stop the war, taking 10 years to do it, is really not something to write home to mom about.

[Wormwood]

With the exception of my mother and one of my old professors, I personally don't know a single 'boomer' who wasn't a self-important blowhard.

And I'm not too sure about my mother. ;-)

[Jeff Chandler]

Talkin' 'bout my gen-eration! We are a self-absorbed bunch, aren't we?

[Jeff Chandler]

I always challenge the baby boomer lefties who brag about their generation stopping Vietnam

I'm amazed at people who actually believe that cutting the South Vietnamese off at the knees and leaving them to their fate while we bugged out was a GOOD thing?!

[EggsAckley]

Great article. Thanks for posting it.


I am a member of the "entry level" boomers, born, 1945. During the sixties, I was on the fringe of the hippie thing, but saw their hypocrisy quickly and backed off. There they were, ragging on their parents for "all being alike," and the hippies themselves were all alike. It was laughable. My parents were the best of the best, the WWII generation!

[Fiddlstix]

That's the thing with baby boomers -- such a high opinion of themselves, such a low opinion of everyone else.

As a person somewhat older than the "boomers", I can say that I have certainly experienced that from some of them....
But
To be fair. There are many "conservative boomers" out there too.
(Also, being a father of "baby boomers", I have to say.....it does seem to take them a bit longer to "grow up" than it did back in my generation)

[Ben Chad]

Clinton alone is enough for us to be ashamed of our generation. But don't blame us for hip-hop.

[FourPeas]

He said that those who went to Vietnam tended to, upon their return and for the rest of their lives, "do more reading." And become more engaged in world affairs.

I'd like to see the data on this. Oh, I forgot, this dude is a "Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam-era journalist". He's much too important and well read to need to use actual data -- his opinions are what matter most. Blech.

[FourPeas]

Around 2010-2020, we are going to be in hell. Combine baby boomer narcissism, with being senior citizens. Oh man will it be ugly. Free Prune Juice and hip replacements as constitutional rights.

That's my fear, too.

[qam1]

Oh man will it be ugly. Free Prune Juice and hip replacements as constitutional rights.

Yeah, I really look forward to the day when baby boomers demand Viagra be included in the Prescription drug benefit.

[Tax Government]

The Vietnam war sent a the boomer generation's prospects for economic success down the toilet. If someone is to be thanked for ending the war, that should be Nixon. If someone is to be blamed for starting it, that should be the democRats. Right now, boomers just want to get some modicum of economic security, before they are forced out of the job market. It's not a lot to ask for. The fact that so many boomers are leftists is an indictment of their/our sanity.

[swampfox98]

To be fair. There are many "conservative boomers" out there too.

I agree, The boomer generation had some of the worst citizens in America's history, and some of the best. So many times we forget the brave men and women who fought and died in that bloody mess of Vietnam, which Lyndon Johnson made worse by his bungling. We forget also that Johnson was from an earlier generation called the "Criminal Democrats".

[T-Bird45]

Thanks for the article, good reading. I have liked this writer for some time.

As to the material, I agree with the author that Halberstam is definitely a one-hit wonder with his book on Vietnam. I am of the boomer generation but was at the tail-end of Vietnam, graduating high school in 1973. I did register for the draft and the war was always in the back of everyone's mind during high school. This is what makes it so hard to avoid as a divining rod to a generation's soul.

The replay today on the presidential election stage of who went and who didn't is probably the last round-up for this contentious piece of history as a measuring stick of a man's worth. I agree with the author that it is best set aside and use the 9/11 measurement as rooted in today's reality.

[RightWingMama]

With the exception of my mother and one of my old professors, I personally don't know a single 'boomer' who wasn't a self-important blowhard.

Well, now you know three people.

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[cyborg]

LOL!!!!!

[oh8eleven]

I always challenge the baby boomer lefties who brag about their generation stopping Vietnam..."

Good for you! In fact NVA officials have admitted for years that the great unwashed,
anti-war, pinko-commies in the USA gave them "strength" to keep the war going.
Semper Fi...

[wildbill]

Most interesting thing about this piece is that Navarette is Mexican-American and generally liberal.