Boomer doom: Victims of culture of youth

Scripps Howard News Service via KnoxNews ^ | 1/28/7 | LEE BOWMAN, LISA HOFFMAN and THOMAS HARGROVE

[Paved Paradise]

I say GO FOR IT BABY. You earned it. Like I posted elsewhere, I'd rather die crashing my Porsche or Harley (I'm dreaming because hubby and I own neither), than end up in the nursing home drooling and mumbling.

[DakotaGator]

Another whiny boomer article. I'm a boomer and I hate seeing these self-centered pieces. We should tag them AWBAs!

Just because someone comes up with statistics doesn't mean anything needs to be done about it. So here are a few facts of life for Scripps Howard and we boomers:

1. If you live you will die.
2. When you die it will be because of something.
3. Neither medical nor social science has a cure for "something".
4. As you live you will age.
5. As you age things will change.
6. No science has a way to stop aging.

Those facts of life lead me to these observations;

a. How you live is a personal choice.
b. These choices affect how you will likely die.
c. Personal choices are no one else's business.
d. Medical science needs to get its nose out of people's personal choices.

So, for boomers; make your choices and take your chances.

For medical science; stop trying to influence personal choices and concentrate on caring/curing the sick/injured.

For all; embrace life for it is fleeting!

[Paved Paradise]

well they sure can't be all lefties... there's our pal right here on FR (seaoflove I think) who is always extolling the virtues and benefits of LSD.

[To Hell With Poverty]

"According to the Scripps study, boomers accounted for about half of all people nationwide who died of drug-related causes in 2003. That is far out of proportion to their 26 percent share of the population."

Holy cow! And that's even with the meth epidemic that's sweeping today's kids, not to mention crack, ecstasy , oxy and all that. I had no idea.

I bet if this news was more widely reported a lot of today's teens and 20-somethings would be less likely to try drugs. I mean, who wants to emulate some washed-up old hippy?

[linda_22003]

I am a part of this cohort as well, and you are welcome to speak for yourself.

[BlazingArizona]

A "glass half full" reading of the same statistics shows that my generation is dying from natural causes at a much lower rate than its predecessors. I first noticed this at my twentieth and thirtieth high school reunions: except for accidents and Vietnam, the class was virtually unscathed.

The extra deaths cited in this article are among the drug-intensive group. A lot of them ODed spectacularly in their youth, some in the middle of glamorous careers (remember Jim Morrison?), and they are still dying off at a high rate now. I have known a few people with early histories of recreational drug usage who dropped off in their early fifties. But once you factor out this special cohort, we see that the Boomer sense of adventure is leading to longer lives, not shorter.

[Jagman]

Touchy! Just like a boomer!

[wtc911]

Admit it, if you are a boomer, by and large we are a generation of whiners!

------------------------------------

Speak for yourself. I am one of nine children, seven of us officially 'boomers'. We have all achieved, we are all successfull parents, none of us will need social security and none of us ever took a dime. Most of the folks I grew up with are the same.

[Blackirish]

The study found that, by far, most of those dying are white males in their mid- to late 40s....

Thats me....Hey guys check in on me once in a while.

[linda_22003]

Just tired of simplistic stereotyping. If you and the boomers you know are blots on society, I'm sorry for you, but it does not qualify you to speak for a generation.

[Jagman]

I'm afraid you are confusing the personal with the generational. My gripe is with our generation overall. For every person like you, there are probably a thousand or a hundred thousand who embraced the Zeitgeist of the '60s, and still do. And these are the people who have emerged as leaders in our universities, and are the self-loathers who inhabit positions of importance in government and industry.

Sorry, my fear and loathing is of my own generation.

[Jagman]

Okay, sorry about the touchy remark.

[NicknamedBob]

"Social Darwinism working its magic and improving the gene pool. "

I was thinking along these lines and regretting the fact that these careless or clueless idiots likely have already had kids.

And then I was cheered by the thought that they probably hadn't!

[Nam Vet]

This reminds me of the wag who suggested he hoped to be shot by a jealous husband at the age of 98.

That wasn't me! I've always said 104 years!

Nam Vet

[jocon307]

"In the mid-1990s, with the first boomer occupying the White House, the chronic diseases of aging - cancer, heart disease and the new scourge of human immunodeficiency virus - edged out violent death as leading contributors to the demise of boomers as the first wave emerged into their 40s."

Lend me an editor! What sloppy writing, surely the "first wave" of baby boomers were not "emerging into" (oy for that turn of phrase alone) their 40s in the mid-90s.

[Nam Vet]

I cringe to admit I'm part of this cohort. We truly are a bunch of assholes.

Speak for yourself, Batman!

Seriously, there are major numbers of assholes in our little Boomer group. I'm ashamed of a vast number also and have been for decades. People just have to keep in mind that there are quite a few of us who are and always have been Conservatives and have never been a part of the idiocy so properly accredited to Boomers.

Nam Vet

[Jagman]

Agreed.

[wtc911]

I'm afraid you are confusing the personal with the generational.

____________________________________________

I do not assume the perceived attributes of any group as a way of defining myself.

[Jagman]

That's fine, but you're missing my point.

[wtc911]

No, I am not validating your point because I don't agree with it.