Friday, February 19, 2010

Among Baby Boomers, there are many visions -- and plenty of non-visions

On Keith Olbermann the other night, guest commentator Christian Finnegan made an interesting comment about Tea Party attendees (a.k.a. teabaggers) who happen to be white and middle-aged and elderly and angry, etc. He called them "a bunch of Baby Boomers scared that the world has passed them by."

I've been thinking about this. I'm a Baby Boomer that is quite certain that the world is passing me by. Obama's election confirmed this notion. He was elected by youngsters and ethnic minorities and aging Liberals and Raging Grannies and disaffected veterans and gun-toting union members and transsexuals and people of all ages fed up with the status quo. People like me.

Baby Boomers were in there somewhere. After the 2008 election results came in, I texted my son in Tucson, thanking him for voting and getting his friends out to vote. They will continue to vote for change because change is what they know. My Tucson son looks at his fellow Arizonan, John McCain, fulminating against liberals and gays and Obama and change and he thinks: "Why is that old guy yelling at me?" And then this: "This angry old guy expects me to vote for him?"

I'm just guessing what my son thinks. He's full of surprises.

People get scared when life speeds up so much that they can't keep up. People get scared when someone who doesn't look like them gets elected president. People get scared when answers to their questions aren't readily available.

I'm scared, too. But I can't slow down the world. I am along for the ride. More than that. I have hopped on the intergalactic bandwagon and I'm on for the long haul.

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