SOME
HOT ADVICE TO BABY BOOMERS:
STAYING YOUNG FOREVER IS NOT COOL
By
Valerie Shaw, M.PR
Thanks to the advent
of electronic media (invented in the last century),
and of language, (a couple of thousand years ago),
the 20th century will never be as vague a period as
say the third Egyptian dynasty or the Byzantine Empire.
But it's fairly certain that ten or twenty years from
now, it'll be the Baby Boomers who will be called
on to recount their stories of the 60s Civil Rights
movement, the Kennedys, Motown music, and sex before
AIDs, the same way those Depression era kids still
talk about World War II like it just happened.
In another decade or
two it'll be those credit-chomping, hedonistic Baby
Boomers who are the elders of our global village;
not the penny-pinching old folk born before 1930 whose
motto was get-by, make-do and save ten-cents out of
every dollar for a rainy day. Although anyone born
after 1960 may not realize it, it was that generation
who gave Baby Boomers of all races their jump-start
on fair employment, voting rights, equal education
and a plethora of other privileges we and all other
subsequent generations enjoy.
Now that the 1900s have
officially passed into the status of the good old
days, I am frankly worried that Baby Boomers may not
know how to handle the awesome responsibility of upholding
history. I know entirely too many Boomers who refuse
to get old, completely unmindful that the 60s took
place forty years ago. The only way they are going
to relate history to younger generations is from an
outside observer's perspective. Or as a colorful embellishment
of their own lives and careers.
I talk to young people
today who have never heard any of the time-honored
expressions of my childhood, those quaint old sayings
that were thick as molasses with meaning. I recently
discovered that, although most Boomers are too busy
to share them, those old barnyard philosophies brought
up from the south by our grand- and great-grandmothers
still sticks with youth today. Advice like "Birds
of a feather, flock together," "A dog who
brings a bone will carry it," or, "Why buy
the cow, when you can get the milk for free"
is as fresh to the hip hop nation today as a new pair
of designer athletic shoes. What Baby Boomers don't
seem to appreciate is that getting old is 21st Century
chic. Trying to stay young forever is what is very
uncool.
Unfortunately I see
too many signs of Boomers trying to stop the clock
to feel optimistic about the immediate future of middle
class black philanthropy. Take one of my girlfriends,
for instance. She has had more cosmetic surgery than
most folks have had vacations and she cares more about
her fingernails than she does the working poor. And
I see aging sisters every day dressing like they just
stepped out of a funky music video. I know a number
of middle-aged men who, under their god, Viagra, worship
at the altar of Tae Bo. Finally, I just wanna know,
just how many sets of gold golf clubs is it going
to take for some guys to feel good about themselves?
I just don't know what
kind of a world it will be in the second quarter of
the 21st century if 70-million Baby Boomers insist
on hogging the spotlight instead of focusing it on
the world's theater of concerns and problems. Across
the country, schools are screaming for retiring Baby
Boomers to return to the classroom as mentors and
volunteers. Throughout the city, community services
cry out for modern equipment and experts to train
their aging all-volunteer staff. In practically every
neighborhood there are incubator high-tech multi-media
companies (mostly founded and run by Xers and the
Hip Hop Nation) that are begging for capital infusions.
Yet, for Baby Boomers, easily the most pampered generation
in the history of the world, volunteerism and charitable
donations, according to the most recent studies, are
going down.
With "Forever Young"
as their anthem, I am worried that too many Boomers
are forfeiting their rightful place in history as
the historians of the old days--the 1900s--and as
the great philanthropists of the 21st Century. Most
Boomers I know are totally preoccupied with turning
back the clock on their youth, or they're investing
fortunes into trying to erase the aging process entirely.
To hell with succeeding generations that hunger for
their knowledge.
Since this subject is
rarely talked about in polite company, I realize that
that the concept of hedonistic selfishness due to
the natural aging process may not sit well with many
graying Boomers. Many, I suspect, will be in such
a state of denial, so out of touch with reality, that
they won't recognize the unsettling
truth -- that they are Baby Boom Bummers. That's right;
they are bumming a ride through life on the past glory,
the laurels and accomplishments of their entire generation.
Boomer Bummers are living proof that some people never
grow up. Holding grudges they worked up in 1984, Boomer
Bummers have every plan to take their silly selfishness
to the grave.
I am hoping that this little
slap of reality will cause a buzz among Bummers; maybe
even cause a backlash. I can't tell you how much I love
to stand corrected. Meanwhile, however, until I'm disproved,
I have identified at least 21 signs that someone you
know may be a Baby Boom Bummer.
© Valerie Shaw
2000 All Rights Reserved
**All contents are the exclusive rights of the author
and may not be copied, excerpted, nor duplicated without
the expressed written permission of the author.For
questions regarding duplication of this work, send
email to author.
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By
Valerie Shaw, M.PR - Author/Speaker/Parent
© Valerie
Shaw 2000 All Rights Reserved
