Robert L Wells
SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
All of us old coots used to be called Baby Boomers. Who are (were) the boomers? Here are some hard numbers and old memories that help define us.
The first boomers were born in the first year after the end of the Second World War, 1946 (I was born in 1949). We were raised by parents who valued life and liberty and who wanted a better life for us than what they had experienced ... the great depression and world war.
America came of age during and after WWII. Through the nineteen fifties America became the arsenal of democracy, a world leader, and the home of a booming economy where people could expect to eventually own a home, and electric appliances, and automobiles.
We were raised to expect that all things were possible with hard work and honest effort. The first boomers came of age (in my terms, graduated high school) in 1964. I graduated in 1967. Many found jobs, some attended college.
In the mid sixties America finally confronted the ugliness of racism. The "Great Society" and the "War on Poverty" were, in my opinion, noble efforts by decent men to make changes that were badly needed in the country. Young activists, black and white, were murdered in the south while fighting segregation.
1964 also saw the formation of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley. This leftist movement spread to university campuses across the nation in the mid sixties. In 1965 the Vietnam war began to heat up. I started college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were murdered in 1968.
The college draft deferment was eliminated in 1969, and I drew #259 -- which meant that I would never be called before the next year's birthdays came up in the lottery. I never went to Vietnam, and I protested the war at home every year that we fought it. But the men who fought, whether as volunteers or as draftees, are the bravest and most honorable among us. The war was hated at home, but *never* the men and women who served (by any reasoning people at least). And over 50,000 died before it ended.
The first boomers, born in 1946, turned 65 (standard retirement age) in 2011. I turned 65 in in 2014. We are the leading edge of the boom as it approaches retirement age. We are brave, it's proven, and we are outspoken. Just look at any documentary on the nineteen sixties or seventies if you don't remember living through it.
So, why am I dredging up all this stuff? The boomer tsunami (harbor wave) is rising -- and it's only starting. It isn't just that the numbers will overwhelm Medicare, Hospitals and the Elder Care industry, it is also that the boomers coming will not roll over and accept being treated like trash! We've lived through the craziest of times, crazier than these times, and we have survived!
Treat us like unwanted dirt, and you'll find unwanted dirt where you don't want it. Elders vote. Many elders have resources. Many elders are connected. Many other elders *need* the resources provided by government. Don't mess with us! Don't disrespect our brothers and sisters. We are brave (proven). We are outspoken (proven). And there's a whole bunch of us coming!
The first boomers were born in the first year after the end of the Second World War, 1946 (I was born in 1949). We were raised by parents who valued life and liberty and who wanted a better life for us than what they had experienced ... the great depression and world war.
America came of age during and after WWII. Through the nineteen fifties America became the arsenal of democracy, a world leader, and the home of a booming economy where people could expect to eventually own a home, and electric appliances, and automobiles.
We were raised to expect that all things were possible with hard work and honest effort. The first boomers came of age (in my terms, graduated high school) in 1964. I graduated in 1967. Many found jobs, some attended college.
In the mid sixties America finally confronted the ugliness of racism. The "Great Society" and the "War on Poverty" were, in my opinion, noble efforts by decent men to make changes that were badly needed in the country. Young activists, black and white, were murdered in the south while fighting segregation.
1964 also saw the formation of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley. This leftist movement spread to university campuses across the nation in the mid sixties. In 1965 the Vietnam war began to heat up. I started college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were murdered in 1968.
The college draft deferment was eliminated in 1969, and I drew #259 -- which meant that I would never be called before the next year's birthdays came up in the lottery. I never went to Vietnam, and I protested the war at home every year that we fought it. But the men who fought, whether as volunteers or as draftees, are the bravest and most honorable among us. The war was hated at home, but *never* the men and women who served (by any reasoning people at least). And over 50,000 died before it ended.
The first boomers, born in 1946, turned 65 (standard retirement age) in 2011. I turned 65 in in 2014. We are the leading edge of the boom as it approaches retirement age. We are brave, it's proven, and we are outspoken. Just look at any documentary on the nineteen sixties or seventies if you don't remember living through it.
So, why am I dredging up all this stuff? The boomer tsunami (harbor wave) is rising -- and it's only starting. It isn't just that the numbers will overwhelm Medicare, Hospitals and the Elder Care industry, it is also that the boomers coming will not roll over and accept being treated like trash! We've lived through the craziest of times, crazier than these times, and we have survived!
Treat us like unwanted dirt, and you'll find unwanted dirt where you don't want it. Elders vote. Many elders have resources. Many elders are connected. Many other elders *need* the resources provided by government. Don't mess with us! Don't disrespect our brothers and sisters. We are brave (proven). We are outspoken (proven). And there's a whole bunch of us coming!
