Baby Boomers..A Wild Ride!

What a wild ride!  I was born in 1964…the last year of the “Baby Boomer” generation.     You know..it’s the generation that describes the big population boom  between 1946 and 1964.  I was a little young to understand the generation, but it must have been fun!  Man, we set the world on fire, didn’t we?  The peace and love generation!   Do whatever FEELS right!  Question authority!  Down with the man!  Woodstock was a blast…there will never be anything as epic as that, right?  That’s when music was good…”Puff the Magic Dragon”…..”Talkin ‘bout My Generation” 

We have always been the “in” generation.  The media targets us making us feel that whatever age we are…it’s THE age to be!  When we were young…it was cool to be young.  When we were in our early adult years, it was all buy, buy, buy and we did so …on CREDIT.  Now we are getting older, we are getting blasted with drug commercials to make us feel better. If you are 60 it’s the new 50, 50 is the new 40…. I remember when I was younger I could not imagine the rock stars of our day getting old…now look at Mick Jagger!  Our parents catered to us in our early years and now our children will probably have to  cater to us in our elderly years.

We had free love and now the world has aids.    We had the feminist movement and now the world has emasculated men.  Our individualism has left the world with many fatherless and/or motherless children.  We had rock stars wanting to be politicians and now we have politicians who want to be rock stars.  We polluted the planet and now the world has to clean it up.  We got high and now the world is paying for our disability and rehab.  We will bankrupt the treasury with our welfare state and retirement.  Our youth movement has left the world with men who have never grown up.  Our “no competition schools” has led to the world surpassing us in education.  The provocative sensationalism on TV and in the arts has numbed the next generation to what is truly beautiful.  Our non stop news propaganda has numbed our next generation to violence and we have forgotten how to love our fellow man.  The lyrics in our music has taken the innocence of our young.  We have taken God out of our schools and now we wonder why youth have no morals and there is violence in school. 

Our parents sacrificed much to build us up a better life.  Many lived through the depression and world wars.  Our parents saved their money and did not go into debt.  They paid for our educations.  They had one car, one tv, one washer/dryer, etc and took care of them for years. They had pride in responsibility of themselves and cringed when others offered help.  They lived WITHIN their budget and respected wealth.  Now we have two or three cars, two to three flat screen TV’s and those must be updated every two years.  Do not worry about debt because we can always go bankrupt and start all over again.  Don’t worry about teaching your kids values…the government has that handled.  

I realize perception isn’t always reality.  The generation made great strides with dealing with race and equality.  Most of the thoughts here do not represent the generation as a whole.  I realize the extreme is what gets publicized and it is not reflective of MOST people.  I bring these issues up because I see the country I know changing.  I had a conversation recently with some people convinced we should adopt the Swedish socialism ideal.  I read elsewhere that now almost half of our population may want that.  My parents passed to me a great nation…now we want to abolish it through our own greed.   I am not proud of the socialist welfare state we may be leaving our children.  The socialist thought (as all politically motivated thoughts) work on the ideal that everyone has the good of the state at heart.  It is not always the case.   I believe people know they need to take care of themselves, it is a much more rewarding life than those who feel they do not have to take care of themselves.  As I look at my two children, I can only hope that they can do better than we did as a generation passing the torch.

I read from a good friend of mine (thanks Greg Owens) the following…

"The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more."

Great words to get you to think.  Where do you believe we are in this cycle?  BOOM!   It was a WILD RIDE!

Who Doesn't Like Robin Hood?

Everyone likes Robin Hood, right?  Who doesn’t like someone helping the poor and needy?  The thought of a strong and courageous man risking his life to give those who have little some riches so they may enjoy life more is a good thing.  The wealthy don’t need those riches anyway…it’s only fair.

I would think that Robin Hood’s goal is to make everyone wealthy but, what happens if everyone gets wealthy?   It looks like Robin Hood is out of a job…..and his importance has been significantly diminimished. It stands to reason that the more poor people there are, the more popular Robin Hood is. 

I think in today’s political world we have a lot of Robin Hoods.  The “get elected at all costs” mentality creates an environment where instant gratification trumps long term implications.  Create jobs funded by the government to get people working again and let’s offset part (and a small part) of the funding by taking it from the wealthy because it is “only fair” and they don’t really need it anyway.  Besides, our country could use some beautification projects and better bridges anyway….right? 

The problem is that none of these projects are making money…they are paid for by someone else’s profit and thus cannot sustain themselves.  As Robin Hood undoubtedly found out, these poor people he was helping soon would need him to “steal” again.  When these projects are complete, the government will find out there is no more funding left, and we will have to go “steal” (or tax, or borrow) again to pay for it.   The burden to pay for these things goes on to our children…long after the elected officials are in office.

I think it would have served Robin Hood better if he was not to steal but encourage the rich to make more profit by creating a business that employs the poor.  That way the poor could build their own wealth and perhaps create more profit making businesses of their own.  Perhaps it will serve congress better if it does not take more from the wealthy but encourages them into invest businesses with an opportunity to create more wealth for them and others

Economy is bad....GREAT news for Springsteen!

Country is in the toilet, double digit unemployment, corporate greed, unrest...it all sounds like perfect ingredients for the next Bruce Springsteen CD. Sure enough we will soon be hearing the raspy-voiced, guitar driven rock of Bruce Springsteen's on his recently released "Wrecking Ball" CD spewing vengence on the wealthy while we plunk down money to buy it making him wealthy....another Springsteen success!

I am often amused/angered at American artists who play us play for fools, trash our country at will, trash our way of life, and make money off of it. I love how the late Michael Jackson grabbed his crotch, did pelvic thrusts and sang about how "Bad" he is to sell records, then easily turned around with his "Heal the World" song about his love of peace and saving children. Rihanna who went through a violent relationship with Chris Brown, going on Oprah to say how she is against violence, then singing, "boy can you get it up, IS you big enough...give to me baby like a boom, boom, boom" in her "Rude Boy" Lyrics(that's her grammer not mine). Oh by the way, she is now singing WITH Chris Brown...for profit of course. Sean Penn trashing the US and hanging out with Hugo Chavez, doing idiotic things and we still line up for his movies. Remember the Dixie Chicks?

What a wonderful country we live in! We have the freedom to do apparently anything we want. Do you think we are taking this a little too far? Is Rome beginning to fall again? I agree with vibrant honest debate on all issues. I most certainly do not agree with any idiotic artists views making profit about how they pretend to care....perhaps a boycott on them is in order! I'm sure Springsteen won't mind if I illegally download his CD for free because he doesn't want to be a greedy corporate type trying to make profit at our expense ...right?

America Manhood..Pull Up Your Pants!

I learned today it is definitely hard to be "gangsta" while trying to avoid getting hit by a car.

I had to chuckle at the effort it took for some young gentlemen to get across a busy intersection while keeping their sideways hats on with one hand and their "gangsta" droopy drawers up with the other. Their vigorous waddle across the road would make any duck envious. I just shook my head and thought "kids". They survived to the other side and as they were adjusting pants, hats and catching their breath, I noticed they were not kids. At some point you would think they would want to grow up.

You would think that too, wouldn't you?

I get the feeling today more and more men want to stay boys, whereas in the past boys could not wait to become men. Some say the feminist movement beginning in the 60's immasculated the man....perhaps. Other say the lack of fathers in todays society...maybe. Could it be TV endlessly portraying the man as a stumbling, bumbling idiot? I don't know. I think it really has to do with all of these issues and others I am sure.

Passage from a boy to a man is really vague in this society. When is the time manhood happens? Some say after puberty. Some say after your first sexual encounter or having your first child. Perhaps when you graduate high school or college. Other says when you get your first job or maybe your first car.

Other societies have passage into manhood. They set aside a definite time and place for their young boys to become men. You probably have seen on television African tribes taking their older boys out to battle an animal or wrestle each other. Sometimes in involves a religious ceremony where the elders in the community come together to pronounce manhood among the boys. It can involve competition of some sort, killing a lion, or perhaps becoming circumsized (ouch!).

Even our past generations it seems did not have quite the problem as we see it today. There used to be a definite distinction between being a boy and being a man. You could see it in behavior...taking responsibility for ones actions. You could see it in dress...how many old baseball films have you seen where every man in the park is wearing a suite, tie and fedora hat? TV shows from that bygone era depicted men as smart, strong and head of the household. Today they are usually the comic sidekick to the mother or the kids.

I believe there needs to be a fundamental shift if we are going to get our "manhood" back. I believe it has a lot to do with basic Christian values. I believe that is the best place to start. The roll of the father has been so diminished in society and today there are so many fatherless children with no one to look up too. I think it is up to every individual as to how to raise their kids. I think America needs to "grow up" a bit and teach taking responsibility for itself. Boys need to know the value of their role as well as the importance of it. Hopefully then we would not have half of our population having to support the other half. If nothing else hopefully we will learn to pull our pants up while running across a busy intersection.