Talkin' Bout My Generation

Some Baby Boomers, who once hoped they'd die before getting old, got their wish:

Among Americans in their 40s and 50s, deaths from illicit-drug overdoses have risen by 800 percent since 1980, including 300 percent in the last decade. In 2004, American hospital emergency rooms treated 400,000 patients between the ages 35 and 64 for abusing heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, hallucinogens and “club drugs” like ecstasy.

Some robbed from "the rich" (you and me) and gave to "the poor" (themselves):

Equally surprising, graying baby boomers have become America’s fastest-growing crime scourge. The F.B.I. reports that last year the number of Americans over the age of 40 arrested for violent and property felonies rose to 420,000, up from 170,000 in 1980. Arrests for drug offenses among those over 40 rose to 360,000 last year, up from 22,000 in 1980.

Some threw away with two hands the freedom they once wrote about, sang about, and so coveted:

The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 440,000 Americans ages 40 and older were incarcerated in 2005, triple the number in 1990.

Not pretty. No excuse for it. They are spoiled children who never grew up.  They are both tragic and horrid.

Well, post-Baby Boomers, soon it will be your turn.  Some of you are quite upset that Boomers have received so much attention through their lives, and that they continue to do so. 

As I witness the departure from the earth of the WW2 generation, all I can tell you is that if your experience is anything close to mine, one day you will miss us Boomers more than words can say, and thoughts about our faults will disappear.

Through the lense of time, everything that you think about us now may even change completely.  One day, Boomers may be seen as courageous and indomitable in the face of old age -   never giving up, never giving in, remaining young at heart. We may not deserve the accolades, but I'll bet one day we will receive them.

We Boomers once talked of "generation gaps" and looked down upon the WW2 generation as straight-laced, repressed and bigoted.  And we rebelled, rightly,  but it felt so good, we forgot to stop and may have tossed the proverbial baby out with the bath water, leaving those who follow to go out and find it again.

How will your children look at you?

I wish you luck when they reach their teen years, and patience when they criticize you. 

One day, they too will know what it's like to grow old.

I hope you are able to make a better world for them.  By all means, please surpass us, and teach them to surpass you. 

Comments

[DRaftervoi]

From the DRaftervoi Email box: "Bill and I were finally able to get hold of Randy. He doesn't know where Duke is now, but did have the story of what happened. Apparently Duke met up with Russ in Castro Valley (where Russ was living with someone), they tweaked all night and I guess at some point Russ fell asleep, when he got up he tried to get Duke up and Duke was non responsive. He took him to the ER and told them what happened, since then no one has seen or heard from Russ. Duke had a brain aneurysm/stroke. He was in a coma for a week and was paralyzed on his, I think, right side. There was some brain damage, but Randy didn't really have any details. Randy had been visiting him, and Duke was living at like a seniors home (where they send people who don't have insurance and can't afford a proper rehab facility, bullshit in my opinion). Randy said one day he called there and Duke was gone, presumably to his parents home in Pittsburgh, PA. It is so sad, all those years we all partied so hard."

I always thought Russ was a little rat-bangin' weasel - dumpin' a guy at the E.R. is lame, man. So, my ol' pal Duke is now half-a-vegetable. My daughter is named after one of Duke's Mexican girlfriends, come to think of it - the one that lived under Joe Satriani's apartment.