Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Time to Make Dennis Miller Proud
In response to a comment on the QA List<
As if our current leadership is any less morally bankrupt. I'm a firm believer in survival of the fittest and anyone who mistook the likes of Timothy Leary as a leader deserved whatever snake eyes they rolled. I stand by that statement for today's youth. If you are too ignorant to take care of yourself, please don't breed and please don't come whining to me with your hand out.
The strength, vitality and leadership of the baby boomers who came through the test of being Hippies, intact and better for the experience, is a testament to the fact that there were many more people who had a strong sense of self-preservation, self-respect and self-determination than there were victims.
And since the notion of taking personal responsibility for one's actions has become a thing of the past, there will be no shortage of victims in the future.
I give full props for the survival strengths in my character to to my parents who came from that Greatest Generation, through the hardship of the Depression and the conflict of World War II. They raised us Boomers like weeds, wild free and full of life, how could we NOT have become Hippies at play in the world they made for us with their sweat and blood. Thanks Mom & Dad for letting me have the fun you never had time or imagination for. I still look both ways before I cross.
I wish I could have done as well for my own next generation but theirs is a very different world that is going to suffer for our greed and selfishness unless folks wake up and start making changes and once again take personal responsibility for everything they do.
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7 comments:
Hi, Deb - Cathy Bargar from the quiltart list here.
You've said it beautifully! I agree with every word you said here - and I do so without minimizing the pain & pitfalls that so many of our carefree & open young hippies fell into. Yes, some of that stuff was "bad shit, man", and there were many who didn't make it through.
BUT while we're talking about the youthful casualties of the '60s & '70s, let's not forget the largest group of all: the young men who were drafted to fight & die in Viet Nam, all those who fell there (tragic enough - and talk about following a corrupt leadership!), but also those who have gone on to live lives twisted and wrecked beyond repair by the wounds, both psychic and physical, they brought back with them. Now THAT'S a tragedy! And talk about betrayal of a generation! Those kids were led like sheep to the slaughter, and when the stream of willing volunteers slowed down, the draft was notched up. Somehow the sons of the rich or influential were spared the worst of it, despite the terrifying so-called "lottery" (but boy, think how many more kids went to college & grad school as a result; maybe that's why we have so ridiculously many lawyers now), while the uneducated and poor and "of color" were just ground into the filth, blood, and mud; many of the ones who survived physically can still be seen among us, the walking wounded, their minds and/or bodies shattered.
(That last blast isn't aimed at you, Deb - I suspect you might agree with me on that little digression into the filthy stain that has touched us all, one way or another.)
So while it's sad that some of our brave young hippies met with the rather sordid fates that their journeys led them into - the "bad trips", the suicides, the unanchored wandering, the failure to ever get a good grip on life's tasks - I know that most of us managed to navigate our way through and emerge strong, healthy, and with our spirits intact. And we managed to change a few things along the way - and many of us haven't stopped Fighting the Good Fight yet, and we never will, and have raised our children to carry it on.
As for the next generation, I do think that an awful lot of us have sort of dropped the ball, and the times are indeed very different now. Some of the same uglinesses, and many different ones as well, are still there, and our "selfishness and greed" cause much suffering for our kids and their parents. It's not the world we hoped to pass on to our lids. But I'm a strong believer that each generation has its own challenges to meet, individually and as a generation, and each generation finds ways to cope.
None of us, anywhere, ever, has ever been born into a perfect or ideal world; it just doesn't happen. So our kids' generation has its own responsibilities to rise to (or to fail at), and like all the generations before them they will cope - some better than others, some being irreparably damaged along the way, others managing to triumph and move The Cause (whichever Cause it may be) forward a little. I guess we're all "victims": of the time we each wander into history, of where and to whom we are born, of our own and our parents' mistakes, of those who would call themselves our 'leaders', of the randomest chance...it's always something, as they say. I guess I think that those of us who are able to just need to "pull up our Big Girl panties", face the challenges, and carry on. There will always be those who, for whatever reason, just can't, and it is our job to carry them & help them along however we can. Victims, survivors, I think those words are in serious danger of losing their meaning.
Onwards!
All I can say is Amen Sister!
Deb
Very well said. I think our generation knows how to question, which is something that I think that I have successfully instilled in my own children. It seems like too many people today don't even pay attention to what is going on around them, politically, environmentally and socially. One day they will wake up and wonder what happened to their freedoms and their physical world.
Kit
And I have to agree as well. I especially like Kit's comments. I thought I'd raised a fairly normal and 'average' daughter wrt political awareness, historical appreciation, etc.... but she knows so much more than her contemporaries. It scares me how little they know or care about the world around them! Hopefully, this generation is merely late-blooming and will eventually reach its full potential! Otherwise, who's gonna pay my social security.... VBG!
Diane - Eastern NC
I'm still a hippie and proud of it. I raised good kids. I was always a clean hippie with a job, but I retain the values to this day. I turned out okay in spite of my crazy recklessness. I was at the Summer of Love 40th anniversary, and put photos & story on my blog. www.xanga.com/weavingtheweb. Peace, love & understanding are not dirty words! Rock on! Barbara
It was SO good to hear someone else echo my own feelings that many young people have NO sense of personal responsibility. I see it every day at work. It always has to be "someone else's fault". The extends to parents as well. "my child would not do that - he/she is a good boy/girl".
Off my mini soapbox, but thanks for penning this post.
Couldn't agree more, like zquilts I too spend my workday with folks who are experts at pointing the finger at anyone but themselves and their choices. Well said, and thanks for having the guts to post it.
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