Baby Boomers?

Boomers. We were the generation that wanted to change the world. We wouldn’t accept the status quo. We rebelled against “the establishment.” We hated the war--we got political, we protested, some even died trying to stop it. And stop it we did. It took a while, and there were lots of reasons, but we helped.

It wasn’t just the war. We marched for civil rights as well. Guys grew their hair. Girls burned their bras, hippies got high, and the whole generation brought us rock and roll. We had marches, sit-ins, and boycotts. We protested anything we thought needed changing. Hell, in junior high we even boycotted the school cafeteria.

We were the generation that was going to change the world.

And we did. We made the world better. We fought hard and achieved great things.

So why did we stop?

Back then, we were so progressive. Not progressive as in being Democrats, but progressive in that we were trying to change things. Those causes were all things our un-hip parents yelled at us for. Yet now, few boomers identify as progressive. For good or bad, we’ve changed. We’ve become our parents. We’ve become the establishment.

Recently I was reading the comments on a Fox News site, relating to students staging a school walkout to protest gun violence. Boomers are the largest demographic of Fox News viewers, so I can be pretty sure that many of the comments came from boomers.

And the comments? Things like:

• If that were my kid, I’d drag him out by his hair. 
• Bunch of punks. They’re so stupid. They don’t even know the right names of the weapons.
• Go back to school. Study and get a job.
• Lazy, entitled snowflakes, that’s what they are.
• Where are their parents? Why aren’t they disciplining them?
• What? Did they run out of Tide Pods?
• I hope they get suspended.

You get the idea.

These people, many of them boomers, all sounded like “the establishment” in the 60’s. The establishment that  told us Martin Luther King Jr., was just a troublemaker. Or said “Cassius Clay” was a traitor. Or that Watergate was a witch hunt. Or that yes, war was hell, but we really gotta kill those commies. Or even that the Beatles were nothing--and they need to get their hair cut.

I don’t care if you think these students’ ideas are right are wrong. That’s not the point. You don’t have to agree with the protests of these kids to respect that they’re trying to make a difference. After years of boomers complaining that “kids nowadays” only care about their phones, how refreshing it is to see this generation wake up. So disagree with their stances if you want, but celebrate that they are trying to change the world.

That’s more than most of us boomers are doing now.

Social Media, Listen to Your Mom

I really don’t get it. Social media I mean. Why is the goal to just get people mad?

I mean really. Maybe my mom was different. But I know she always told me not to call other people names. Not to say nasty things, and try not to hurt other people’s feelings. And to treat them like I wanted to be treated.

I’m guessing most moms told their kids that. But lots and lots either didn’t hear it, or are just ignoring it.

It’s cool now to call people names. Whether it’s “libtards” or “Cheeto-head” or any of a million others, it doesn’t matter. Even if they do it to you! Mom would say: just don’t do it. And it never gets you anywhere. It just pisses off the people you’re having the discussion with.

Which of course is what they want. (Why, I don’t know.) They want to get other people mad. It’s their whole goal. And they love it, so much so they even convince themselves they’ve done it, when they’re actually not even close. I had what I thought was a discussion the other day on Facebook. The poster put something I didn’t agree with, and I pointed out the factual inaccuracies. (I do that, you know.) To which the poster replied something about “so I see you’re all upset over this.” I’m not sure how calling out lies comes across as upset. But I guess it does when that’s the whole goal.

Really, I don’t understand. Thecla Morgan, if she were still alive, would be pretty mad at me if I behaved like that.

Mom also told me not to lie. She pushed that one real hard. So I try not to. Now I’m not perfect, but I try to only post things that I am pretty sure are factual. Sometimes I get it wrong, and when I do, if you tell me and provide evidence, I’ll thank you for it. Of course I’m talking about facts, not opinions. You may not agree with my opinions or conclusions, but that doesn’t mean either of us are lying.

But when I point out lies to most people, they don’t thank me. And they don’t take the post down either. Normally they just get pissed off at me and call me names. (“Boy, I bet you feel all great and superior now, don’t you”) Or something like that. Stupid me, I figure most people want to tell the truth...

I have a lot of flaws. I know that. But I try to remember what mom said to me.

I don’t have an answer, other than listen to your mom, and do what she told you. And if she wasn’t as fair, honest, and decent as my mom, then you’re living life with a handicap. And I’m genuinely sorry.

Guns Gone Wild

With the recent school shooting, this is THE topic in the news and on social media. And I’ve noticed something about most opinions: they are just that--opinions, based on little or no data, and sometimes, no sense. Most people are discussing solutions, yet they don’t know the cause of the problem. It is clear that America has significantly more gun violence than other similar countries. (Sources here, here, and here.) Agreeing on that is actually the easiest part. What to do about it is, of course, a different story.

A word of warning however-while mass shootings are horrific and news-grabbing, they are only a very small part of the gun violence problem America has. So to find a solution, or even identify the problem, we have to look at the entire gun issue, not just mass shootings.

But before we try a fix, we have to find the cause. Let me explain. And I’m sorry, but this is going to sound a little like a science class! Pretend instead of trying to find a way to minimize gun violence, we are trying to find a way to minimize lung cancer. What we would do, (and what was done, of course) is that we would look at large groups of people who have lung cancer, and those that don’t. And we would try to find what is different between those groups. If I thought that chewing gum caused lung cancer, but we found out that both groups chewed gum in about the same amounts, I would have to eliminate gum chewing as a possible cause. No matter how much I wished one way or the other.

This is what so many people are NOT doing about guns. In the last week or so, I’ve heard all the following as causes for our gun violence problem: mental health issues, video games, drugs, bad parenting, lack of fathers in the home, movies, the media, abortions, phones, lack of discipline in our society, rap music, too many trophies, Facebook, bullying, removing God from our society, MTV, no discipline in school…

Some of these are foolish, but some make a lot of sense. And while many of these may be contributing factors, it’s doubtful that any of them are major causes. Because they all have a serious flaw. All of these issues are also issues in most other similar countries. Countries similar to the US all have mental health issues, video games, etc, yet they don’t have the same degree of gun violence. So while these factors may contribute, they can no more be THE cause of America’s gun violence problem than chewing gum is the cause of lung cancer. No matter how much we wish otherwise. It doesn’t mean we ignore these things; certainly addressing them could help. But it does mean we have to look further at causes.

Instead we have to look for something that is different between America and the other countries, just like we look at what’s different between groups with lung cancer and without lung cancer. While I'm sure there are more, there are three that have been suggested, and that make sense to me:

1. Americans are just different from people from other countries. 
2. We have the second amendment.
3. We have way, way, more guns.

If we’re really going to address our gun violence issues, we have to address these three. Because these are how we ARE different from countries with less gun violence.

But #1 and #2 both contribute to #3. Yes, Americans love guns, so we have more of them. Yes, America has the second amendment, again contributing to the number of guns in the country.

So like it or not, boiled all down, the one thing that makes us different from the rest of the world, comparing us to similar countries, is that simply, we have a lot more guns.

But that’s the easy part. Solutions? Much tougher. I’ll focus on some possibilities next time.