The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
I write you this morning to let you know I grieve and suffer with you the wrenching events befalling our nation. As a boomer, I want to be out on the streets with you, as we were in the 1960s to end institutional racism and even a war, but that is a dangerous place for a walker or wheelchair.
My main message is a simple one, as my mother used to say: “This, too, shall pass.” She should know, having been born before manned flight and survived two world wars and the Great Depression. She was even bombed at Pearl Harbor but we’ve heard enough about the Greatest Generation.
They earned and deserve their eternal rest, but we boomers think we have been pretty great too: winning the Cold War without nuclear annihilation, cleaning up the environment, ending institutional racism, inventing the computer and the internet — even going to the moon. We have made our share of generational mistakes of course, such as allowing education and health care to become unaffordable for many, letting the U.S. Army be our energy policy, starting wars, failing to regulate capital markets and leaving a large federal deficit for you to deal with.
We have been stuck with this boomer label. And how do you follow the “greatest?” Anyway, with larger numbers, we have gone through the American economy like a small animal through an anaconda — fundamentally changing our society, mostly for the better, and heading into the 21st century “on a wing and a prayer.” Our influence is waning, but, as those annoying drug commercials on TV make clear — we’re still around. A couple of us even want to be president, but most of us just want a book, a good nap and a martini.
Contrary to some of the current rhetoric, our generation ended institutional racism 50 years ago. In our youth, Black Americans could not eat in many restaurants, stay in many hotels, join many organizations, live in many communities, register to vote or attend many schools. After strong legislative and executive action, including using federal troops to fight armed protesters and desegregate schools, institutional racism was eliminated in America.
Our generation is very proud of this accomplishment and the progress that has been made since then. The progress is everywhere to see in sports, music, leadership in business and the military — even a president. Now, a hit Broadway show uses black actors and rap music to portray our founding fathers. As Mama used to say, “Don’t avoid seeing the forest for the trees.”
The American dream is built on individual freedom and hard work for success, however defined, not the “from — to” constructs of socialism. American social programs need to be built on incentives for choice, not mandates. Unless systemic racism is overt and can be reformed, today’s problems stem from racial prejudice: prejudging people based upon their race, ethnicity or some outward sign of difference.
Young children show no racial prejudice when they play or work together — racial prejudice is a learned behavior. Unlearning prejudice is difficult. Your generation must keep fighting, but do not endanger the real progress made since Blacks could not enter a restaurant, sit anywhere on a bus, get a good education or a good job.
We boomers know you can do it. We have seen you organize to prevent more school shootings, run for office against experienced incumbents and protest peacefully. Keep the American values of equality of opportunity, justice for all and human rights forefront and you’ll be fine.
