No retreat, no surrender

I'm not going to be one of those apologists for the Baby Boomer generation.

In my role as the national Baby Boomer Examiner for Examiner.com, I've written several posts over the last several months about Baby Boomer bashing from the likes of President Barack Obama to a variety of college graduation speakers.

Well, to quote an iconic movie from my generation -- "Network" -- I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more.

Every generation defines itself in good ways and bad.

The World War II generation of my mom and dad made incredible sacrifices in the name of country and world peace. But it is also the generation that gave us the atomic bomb, nuclear proliferation and MADness of the Cold War -- mutually assured destruction. It held to segregation and the inequality of gender rights.

Then come the children of the World War II generation -- the Baby Boomers.

And as we age, as the oldest members of our cohort are 63 this year our legacy is being considered with some derision.

Obama, himself a Baby Boomer, albeit at the youngest end of the spectrum, rallied a whole new generation of voters by railing against the politics of the older generation.

It was a theme of his book "The Audacity of Hope":

“In the back and forth between Clinton and Gingrich, and in the elections of 2000 and 2004, I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the baby boom generation — a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago — played out on the national stage."

It was repeated in his inaugural address: "On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

It got worse in May during the parade of college commencement speakers who told graduating seniors -- which included my son David -- that they were entering a miserable period of joblessness and recession brought on my the uncaring excesses of their Baby Boomer parents.

To characterize my generation as the greedy Yuppies of the 1980s or as intractable politicians ignores the contributions. Socially and politically, it was the Baby Boomers who took to the streets to, at times, literally fight for racial equality and peace. The Sexual Revolution of the generation brought greater gender balance at home and at work. The environmental was essentially a dumping ground until the Baby Boomers came along and pushed for its protection.

And we brought an educated, committed work ethic to the office buildings and factories that created unprecedented productivity.

Trust me. We're not done yet. Those qualities of fair play, caring and creativity that we had in our 20s and 30s? We still have them today in our 50 and 60s, and we will still have them in our 70s and 80s.