OK Millennials, this boomer was you
I’m 61. This makes me, solidly, a boomer. I raised 2 millennials and I know many of their friends. In fact after more than 15 years in digital media, data and cannabis, I know more millennials than boomers. We are closer in our sensibilities than “ok boomer” would lead you to believe. I understand looking at parents can be confusing, embarrassing and downright unfathomable. As a young man, I could never understand the things my parents did, like my father’s vote for Nixon, or my mother constant sense of worry. Why did my parents smoke in the car when driving with my sister and me in the backseat and the windows rolled up? hear the “I miss Nixon” t-shirts are selling like hotcakes.
Growing up in the 60s I was afraid that the air was polluted, the water was toxic, students were being shot on campus. I was afraid that I would be forced to join army. To top it off, those of use 58-62’ers came out of school during the second worst recession in our history and entered a horrendous job market. It was a gloomy time and as the back wash of the baby boom. I didn't see my parents as America’s greatest generation—my father didn’t fight in either World War, or even in Korea.
Today, the issues of our planet’s destruction, health care, Black Lives Matter and the fight for racial equality, the election, and global pandemic lay heavy on our collective conscience. The lasting effects of all of these combined continue on when there are real, tangible things that could be done—and done now. We have an organized crime approach that has put anything and everything up for sale. I am no less appalled by any of this than the millennials, but I refuse to sit still and not do anything about it. I am still you, as many of us are. Instead of rolling your eyes at our perspective, perhaps realize it’s a perspective you have yet to experience—a lived perspective. I assure you this has nothing to do with being a democrat, republican, or an independent.
Perspective has the potential for changing everything. Context matters! Until you have paid 55% income tax, the concept of socialized medicine seems like a no brainer. Until you have suffered through criminals, running large companies that destroyed your 401k and retirement plans, retirement seems like a walk in the park. Until you have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to send your kids to college, free college for everyone makes all the sense in the world. That doesn’t mean that these plans are bad, but often the best plans lie in the middle. And for some reason, the middle has become a place that millennials don’t seem to care much about.
These debates are not about being right or wrong. They’re about having the debates in the first place. They’re about understanding and doing something about the issues at hand. As an arrogant young man there are many thing’s I wish I could tell my parents I was wrong about. The same goes for bosses early on in my career. Instead of blaming us boomers, it’s boomers and millennials that have the size and inclination to fix things and we must do it together. There is much more to learn from each other than there is to disagree about. We understand the ease with which we blamed our parent’s generation and learned about the perspectives that change with life. To a mutual understanding, to our beautiful planet, to treating each other with kindness and respect, to access to health care. OK X and Y’ers…your turn.