“The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”

[Cyrano]

John Kennedy spoke those words in his inaugural address on January 20th, 1961. For far too long, that “torch” of hope, goodwill and human decency of which John Kennedy spoke, has been all but been extinguished by venal people of ill will.

Barak Obama is now the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. The torch has once again been passed to, hopefully, a newly enlightened generation of Americans. For almost 30 years now, far too many people have voted for the worst aspects of their own natures and against their own well being. They have suppressed their own instincts of decency, morality and justice and given rein to those who have invoked fear and hatred.

Fear and hatred are the most powerful weapons in the Republican arsenal. And now, that's all they have left to offer. Republicans can’t get you to vote for them based on sane, rational reasons. They're stuck scaring the hell out of you with racial hatred and fear of all the “THEMS” in the world.

So here’s my plea. Don’t buy the snake oil they’re selling. -- “Obama is black.” “He’s a Muslim.” “He’s inexperienced.” “He’s not one of us.” “He doesn’t wear a flag pin.” “He and his wife are too uppity.” “He sips wine and lattes.” -- How can any sane, rational, thinking human being buy this blatant bullshit as a reason for voting against their own self-interests?

For those who dwell on the word “patriot,” it’s time to be one. Our country has been pillaged and raped by those who hijacked the word "patriotism" and used it for their own profit and power. Think about your family, yourself, your community, your country, and the well-being of the planet on which you live. And then, please, please, do the right thing in that voting booth this November.

[Bob Dobbs]

1. Hopefully THIS New Generation won't drop the torch

in the sewer like THAT New Generation did.

And, HELL YES, we have to ensure a landslide so huge that the rat bastard rethugs and their criminal election thieves can't steal another Presidential election, as they have the last (at least) two cycles.

[texastoast]

2. That torch is pretty slippery

And its lubricant is the love of convenience over the duty of responsibility to future generations.

That love prevented the boomers from being and doing all they could to secure those following us.

[Bob Dobbs]

7. I accept my personal responsibility in the droppage.

I was trying to build a career and was less of a firebrand than I am now.

[aquart]

14. Pretty much every damn thing we fought for we got.

Some, we should have given back.

But when we pushed, we won.

What has this bunch fought for? We gave them abortion rights. They've pretty much lost them. Now they're losing women's rights in general. When ARE they going to get off their privileged asses and fight?

[texastoast]

16. Their "entitled" asses?

You are right. I along with many other brave women really did work for 30 years very hard for women's rights and especially for choice and to get rid of the humiliation of sexual harassment and equal rights in the work place.

Boomers fought so that the next ones could sleep in a better feathered bed in lots of ways, but that comfort must continually be claimed through effort. True, many of us could have done more and taken less.

There are those who would take away those rights as soon as the next generation ignores them.

And while those on this board do not necessarily fit in this generalization, Gen Y better wake up and smell the Starbucks or the Fifties are just ahead for them.

[Taverner]

3. THAT new generation had it shot from their hands

JFK - assassinated
RFK - assassinated
MLK Jr. - assassinated
Malcom X - assassinated

Reagan - wounded...

[Bob Dobbs]

8. And we let the power elite behind the shooters get away with it.

And those who have blood on their hands from those treasonous murders are in charge not.

It is (past) time for Change.

[Taverner]

10. Agreed

But you can understand why the boomers were a little shell shocked.

[aquart]

12. This is the generation that got awards for showing up.

Praise for losing.

This is the generation that has never been criticized for anything. (At least, those in the middle class. And that's really all we're talking about here.)

I'm sure they'll be impressive.

[Benhurst]

4. Obama is a baby boomer, so just exactly how is "the torch being passed

to a new generation"?

"In 2006, the oldest of the baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, will turn 60 years old."

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/006105.html

Obama was born in 1961. He is a baby boomer.

He may act younger, but then what could be more boomerish behavior from a member of the generation which has coined "sixty is the new fifty," etc., etc., etc. ?

[Cyrano]

5. And your point is....?

[Benhurst]

6. My point: The torch can hardly be passed to a new generation if

the recipient is a member of the same generation as those passing it.

The "torch will be passed," which is at best a rather trite bit of symbolism left over from the Kennedy era when there really was a generational change in leadership, will only be passed this election cycle is McCain wins, at which time it will be passed to a member of a generation preceding the baby boomers.

Obama is a baby boomer, and I trust he is comfortable with that truth, not trying to pretend he's something he's not. I wish more of his followers were.

[Cyrano]

9. "... the torch will be passed," -- "... a rather trite bit of symbolism ..." ???

I have read your post four times and I really don't have the slightest idea of what you're talking about.

"Baby boomers -- generation preceding baby boomers -- will only be passed if McCain wins." I didn't have a three martini lunch, but in all truth, I'm reading your post as though I had.

WTF are you talking about? What is your point?

And most of all, why do I get the feeling that your post implies that Obama does not represent "a new generation of Americans?" And by "generation," I'm not talking about age. I'm talking about attitude, intelligent thought, and moving on from the horrors that have been visited upon us since the day Ronald Reagan infected the White House.

Is this about the just passed primary campaign? If not, I once again ask, what are you talking about???

[Benhurst]

11. Your Kennedy era quote references a real generational change

in leadership in American history. It has been over used -- and misused, as in this case-- so often as to have become trite.

McCain is not a baby boomer. If the leadership of this country is passed to him, the torch will be passed back to an earlier generation.

Obama is a baby boomer. There will be no generational change in leadership if he is elected.

If you feel this particular baby boomer represents the thoughts of another generation, fine. But HE is still a baby boomer.

If he is going to represent the thought of another generation, baby boomer though he may be, I personally would hope he'd go back to that of the founding fathers. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights have been shredded, the so-called "Patriot" Act renewed and the balance of powers upon which the Republic was founded has been eroded, if not destroyed.

But then he voted for the renewal of the "Patriot" Act, so I guess that would be a bit much to hope for.

[Cyrano]

15. Kennedy's reference was to

generations that spanned our country from founding fathers, civil war opponents, the Jim Crow era, the "Greatest Generation," and all the other landmark eras I left out.

He wasn't talking about Hippies, Yuppies, Baby Boomers, Generational Xers, or any other short-term snapshot of history. He was talking about America as it was, has been and will be over the long term.

And that's exactly what my original post was about.

[Benhurst]

17. You'd better go back and read your history, assuming you weren't old

enough to have lived during the Kennedy era. Kennedy was talking about HIS generation picking up the torch from the generation which had led us through the depression and WWII. It was a literal transition from the generation of Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower to his generation, the generation which as young men had fought WWII.

[Spike89]

19. Exactly right

Kennedy was the 1st president born in the 20th century and a lot was made of that fact. I love the sentiment that it wasn't purely age-based, but the reality is that Kennedy and early 60s were all about the emerging power of the youth culture.

[aquart]

13. Shhhhhh. They haven't actually noticed that, yet.

[Mad_Dem_X]

18. Well said!

"Think about your family, yourself, your community, your country, and the well-being of the planet on which you live."

Let go of grudges - think about our country and the kind of leadership it deserves!