Life has sped up since September.\u00a0 Tonight I\u00a0 drove in to represent the Political Committee with Bethann.\u00a0 It could have been a long drive for little result, but the dialogue was good.\u00a0 The ex-com had an interest in the committee’s work.\u00a0 It pleased me to see that the table held more gray hairs than youngsters, so I felt at home.<\/p>\n
The meeting took longer than the 3 minutes Margaret had planned for our report, but I think it was time well spent.\u00a0 The ex-com got to listen to our logic and get a sense of the criteria we used to make decisions.<\/p>\n
Bethann hails from Pittsburgh.\u00a0 She finds the Minnesota culture a bit reticent, not forward or assertive enough.\u00a0 Hard to tell for me after 30+ years here.\u00a0 I went native a long while back.<\/p>\n
A sore point for me these days.\u00a0 I’m tired of baby boomer bashing.\u00a0 Those who criticize us did not live in the world we grew up in.\u00a0 They do not remember the days of forced and enforced segregation.\u00a0 They do not remember the days when women were second class, assumed ditzy and inconsequential.\u00a0 They do not remember the days of queer bashing.\u00a0 They do not remember the days of back alley abortions.\u00a0 They did not face the draft for a war as egregiously stupid as the current war in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Why don’t they remember these things?\u00a0 Because the baby boomer generation, led by some progressive activists just a bit older than we were, embraced the need for change.\u00a0 We lived the struggles.\u00a0 It was our marriages and relationships in which the sexual revolution came to life.\u00a0 It was our solidarity that helped push people of color and same-sex relationships into the cultural mainstream.\u00a0 We fought the draft so that others would not need to fight it again.<\/p>\n
Yes, we instigated the culture wars.\u00a0 Yes, the conservative revolution led by Ronald Reagan was a direct challenge to all we had accomplished.\u00a0 But note this, it was a reactive\u00a0 challenge, a challenge made necessary by the scope and depth of cultural change in the 60’s and 70’s.\u00a0 The nation needed a cooling off period from the hot, intense life on the streets and in the bedroom.<\/p>\n
Those sensibilities remain with many of us.\u00a0 We fight on, stuck in the confrontational politics of our youth, insensitive to the changes that have happened.\u00a0 It is this anachronistic flavor to the baby boomer generation that feeds the ongoing felt need to put us in our place.\u00a0 Well, I say, not until we are in the grave, baby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Life has sped up since September.\u00a0 Tonight I\u00a0 drove in to represent the Political Committee with Bethann.\u00a0 It could have been a long drive for little result, but the dialogue was good.\u00a0 The ex-com had an interest in the committee’s work.\u00a0 It pleased me to see that the table held more gray hairs than youngsters, … Continue reading I Say, Not Until We’re in the Grave, Baby<\/span>