As a baby boomer, I feel that Gerontophobia is exhibited frequently here at DU

[graywarrior]

Gerontophobia is defined as "unreasonable fear and/or irrational hatred of older people." (Palmore, 1972)

When I was young, I blamed older people for fucking up the world. Now that I am older, I sense the same feelings toward my generation by younger people. I can't change it, I just want to point that out.

[provis99]

1. As a Gen-Xer, I have noticed what hypocritical, sanctimonious blowhards Baby Boomers are.

Worst generation in American history, and the ones responsible for running America into the ground.

[Wind Dancer]

3. You are joking?????

:eyes:

[provis99]

14. yes, I am joking.

The OP deliberately set up a juicy target, so I obligingly lobbed a verbal grenade. Just having fun on Saturday night.

[graywarrior]

20. My old brain didn't catch on to that.

[NYC_SKP]

26. Karma's going to take your hair and make your teabag itch incessantly.

Thus does Karma serve the aged.

:P

[provis99]

29. Don't worry; I promise not to be grumpy when I'm an old codger!

As long as I can still tell kids to get off my lawn.;-)

[NYC_SKP]

44. Crap! You stole my snappy comeback.

Now go to bed! It's late!

Why, when I was your age....

:P

[graywarrior]

30. Did you get that from a Salada teabag?

[NYC_SKP]

46. Yes, Black, Original, and All Natural, baby!

[graywarrior]

47. Oouu, you nasty man!

[SpiralHawk]

59. oh noes, not the CURSE OF THE ITCHY TEABAG

[NYC_SKP]

75. .!.

:rofl:

[notesdev]

17. Of course he's joking

If he is a Gen-Xer he would have noticed that a long long time ago :)

[SharonAnn]

7. Yet, we are the first generation that paid extra into Social Security so that

there was a surplus waiting for us when we retired. No previous generation did that.

It was used to fight wars and pay for tax cuts, but nonetheless, we did our part by setting it aside. Others stole it and we expect to get it back.

[Hannah Bell]

24. no, you're the greedy ones whose SS costs will bankrupt the system,

don't you know the story!!

at least, that's what the ruling class is telling young people, after extracting over-payments from the boomers during most of their working lives & using it to cut the taxes of the rich.

[pecwae]

64. Why, why, why can't all

us Boomers go on and do everyone a favor and die off to a person? I mean, we're the reason for everything that's wrong in the world and don't deserve to live.

[patrice]

106. Why? Because some of us just might be the ones to lead the way into more Co-Operative lifestyles,

including living arrangements.

We ARE the ones, afterall, who tried it when we were young and have the lessons learned from those somewhat mixed experiences.

[fasttense]

60. Yes, we were the 1st generation to pay for both our parents and our own retirements.

We were also the majority of the American soldiers killed in Vietnam. We were also the majority of people protesting Vietnam. We were the generation that brought you Rock and Roll.

Can we take credit for the internet? I think we should, along with personal computers and bottled water.

[whathehell]

84. Thank you...Nice summation, although we could include more.

I believe we started the push for Women's Rights, Gay Rights..and I would say helped with Civil Rights as well, although I think many of those folks were a bit older, but I could be wrong.

With a complete lack of modesty, I like to think of us as the "Second Greatest Generation":)

[Paper Roses]

126. Thanks, I didn't really know what to call us old timers.

We broke a lot of ground, protested another unjust war, pushed forward with medical and scientific research that has bettered mankind, fought for equal rights. We have done so much and now, frequently, I read the bitching about all of us being a drain on the state. BTW, to those of you who still do not know, we paid for SS, we paid and still pay for Medicare. Life for many of us has gone down the crapper because of the economy. Loss of family members(age and illness) loss of jobs, savings dwindling to the point where we are frightened. My husband is gone now, I'm sure my years are numbered. I sure as hell do not want the government or the state to cause me to spend every asset I have so I can live in some dilapidated old age home. I will lock my doors, sit it out, and leave my kids what little I have. My husband and I agreed on that and I will keep his wishes.

I'm disgusted with the way things are now.

Think of us when you hit 65 or so. Funny how your outlook will change and I assure you, It will.

[mitchum]

88. Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis were boomers?

I never knew that.
Boomers were perhaps the first generation to consume rockandroll, but they were certainly not the creators of the form. There was receiving, but not bringing.
I agree with your other points, though.

[SteelPenguin]

99. Gen X will do the same

We'll pay extra into Social Security, provide for the retirement of our parents and grandparents, and then when we retire have nothing there waiting for us and be on our own and work at Wal-Mart till we die.

[patrice]

107. Some of us Boomers are working on that.

I have been talking to people about co-housing and co-operative living for years.

I am currently employed in an area that will eventually address public/private partnerships for elder-care resources that would allow and protect private equity that not only would allow residents to work where they live, but would also allow employee investment in the enterprise.

I think you're going to start seeing this kind of stuff within the decade and I suspect this is one of the reasons Repukes are dragging their feet so bad on HCR. To the extent that HCR involves elder care, there will be a major political battle to credit for what's going to happen. The Carlyle Group didn't invest in long-term care recently for nothing.

[RebelOne]

123. Well, I am getting it back.

I have been collecting social security for the past 5 years and also working full-time and still paying social security taxes.

[niyad]

8. think you are correct there--after all, the boomers gave birth to the gen-x'ers. BIG mistake.

[stubtoe]

90. No kidding!

:)

[NYC_SKP]

9. You can't be serious. nt

[Warpy]

10. Undoubtedly your children will feel the same way about you.

That's just the way it goes.

You won't realize how little you were consulted until it's almost all over.

Well, if we let you live.

[graywarrior]

13. You made my point quite clear

[Journeyman]

16. How myopic, to lay blame on a "generation". . .

I'm 55 years old, and if the truth be told, I just got here myself. The planet seemed unbelievably screwed up when I arrived -- dead Hitlers and Stalins littered the Earth, McCarthy wouldn't be censured for another month or more, Rachel Carson was only beginning her career -- it couldn't be more surreal if Kafka himself were orchestrating it.

I spent my childhood beneath a school desk hiding from nuclear destruction. So many of the leaders in my youth never made it to my majority. As a teenager, I won my only lottery prize -- early induction to fight an asinine war no one believed in anymore. And despite all my best efforts -- and the best efforts of some of the best minds of my generation (those not destroyed by madness, who could do more than Howl) -- it just seems to be getting worse.

For every step forward we stumble three back. Again I face nuclear annihilation, though this time without the comfort of a protective desktop. Now it's my children who may face the horror of death by lottery. McCarthyism runs rampant in the halls again, the ecological disaster we face is far beyond anything Carson envisioned, and the ghosts of totalitarianism seem to stir yet again.

Point a finger of blame at another generation? Why, because they arrived a day or more before you? No. It's no one's fault and it's everyone's fault. . . take your fair share of blame. There's enough for all.

[anonymous171]

32. ACK it was a joke .nt

[spanone]

74. as a baby boomer you can go fuck yourself

just joking

[NoPasaran]

85. Physiologically impossible

Believe me, we tried. Man, how we tried.

[spanone]

94. we succeeded

[ldf]

95. well, i do have this one porno tape....

all i can say is, WOW...!

[graywarrior]

89. Acid trip, for sure.

[old mark]

104. Go fuck yourself, provis......you suck.

Boomer.

[leftstreet]

2. ...

:popcorn:

[UndertheOcean]

4. Most of your generation will be eaten by maggots within a decade or two , then your worries will

be quite moot.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

11. You can't believe how fast it will happen to you

But what the fuck do I care? I'll be dead.

[Hannah Bell]

to be followed by yourself in turn.

[UndertheOcean]

25. such is the circle of life , cycles and cycles of endless predation and regurgitation

makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

[cliffordu]

54. It will till you hit 60.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

5. Never trust anybody under 30

I think I got that right.

[NYC_SKP]

6. Well that's messed up!

I guess I've seen I've seen bashing of one age group by another, not always the same victims.

It is shallow and cowardly, quite unfortunate and not at all helpful.

[Oregone]

12. Even if the fear is based on irrationality, it doesn't instantly make the notion wrong.

:)

[graywarrior]

15. It's ageism

And when you reach my age, you realize how naive and hateful it really is.

[Oregone]

36. Well, whatever you call it...

We get to inherit a shit-hole (economically/socially/globally/environmentally/politically) from a group that had an incredibly high rate of intergenerational mobility and opportunity.

So, eh, I guess some feathers are ruffled. Maybe that vehicle your generation drove to success left some overwhelming exhaust in its wake.

[laughingliberal]

51. "a group that had an incredibly high rate of intergenerational mobility and opportunity"

See, there's the problem. The people to whom you refer were our parents. We have spent our entire working lives in the era of stagnant wages, 401k's instead of employer sponsored pensions, declining union power, and rising health care costs with the takeover of the industry by the for-profits. Born in '55, about 10-15 years too late. I was a little luckier than the group 5 years behind me. I managed to get through nursing school before Reagan cut the funding for higher education.

[cabluedem]

57. As a baby boomer myself, I am sorry that we failed to make the planet a better place to live....

May your generation have more luck then we did. If it makes any difference, many BBer's are going to die stone cold broke and destitute. Many of us never had the standard of living our parents enjoyed and we never will now. Good luck.

[lib2DaBone]

18. Yes Gray.. as we get older.. it IS apparent that age discriminaton is in play..

I can not count the job interviews I have had... where the 24-year-old HR "Professional" told me I was over-qualified.

It seems, Corporations are scared to death that if you are over 40, you are going to get on their Payroll and have a heart attack.. thus driving up their Health Insurance rates.

You are Personna Non Gratis!

Ironic.. that the Repugs.. (and Corporations) are fighting to repeal any real health care reform.. and refuse to admit that it will make American Companies more competitive. WTF?

So here we are.. damed if you do.. damed if you don't. Ain't his a wonderful Fucking Country?

[Octafish]

19. All young men think old men are fools.

All old men know young men are fools.

[graywarrior]

22. At school, I sit next to a 23 year old, old soul.

Spiritually, she is my age.

[rwheeler31]

21. I do not think that at all.

I think young people are more helpful today.

[provis99]

23. I always thought defining people by their "generation" was a little silly.

I'm interested in what beliefs and values people have, not what particular year they were brought into this world. After all, we have control over our beliefs, but not over our birth years. The idea of assigning some kind of group identity to people born in a certain age is a little silly; just look at the wide variety of political opinions the Baby Boomers produced, from John Kerry on the one hand to Rush Limbaugh on the other (I'm sure other people could think up better examples).

[seabeyond]

27. when i was young i loved listening to older people. now getting old, i love listening to the young

value in all, if one choses to appreciate.

[madinmaryland]

28. I think its a hatred of people who duct tape ducks to a wall!

FREE THE DUCK!

[graywarrior]

35. If I was Scarlett Johansson with a duck taped to the wall, you'd LOVE me!!!

[LooseWilly]

50. For a long time, no less...

;)

[GodlessBiker]

31. To the extent that older people are, as a result of their age, in positions of power ...

in a greater proportion than younger people, they *are* responsible for fucking up the world. That is, older people of yesterday and older people of today. Younger people have cause to be suspicious of older people, and I say that as a 51 year-old man.

Since younger people don't vote as much as older people, I don't see this changing anytime soon.

[TexasObserver]

33. One day you don't trust anyone over 30, the next day you don't know anyone under 30.

It's kind of a cool feeling going from the youthful, cynical view of elders to becoming an elder and adopting the same "you young whippersnappers" attitude our elders showed us.

Same as it ever was.

[upi402]

34. It's old hippies who are still right. Young people are buying the BS now

Sad, but I wish they would go through some kind of peace, love, dope thing too - just so we could move on from this corporate worship we're stuck in.

[anonymous171]

37. Old "hippies" are now the corporate overlords.

Remember that they were raised under the loving care of Madison Avenue to be good little consumers.

[Hannah Bell]

38. don't kid yourself. bill gates had long hair, but he was never a hippie.

old hippies are mostly trying to survive, like everyone else.

[provis99]

40. only if you count Ben and Jerry as corporate overlords.

I think the same right wingers who are assholes today were assholes back in the '60s too; the actual "old hippies" I see still hanging around college towns do thinks like make pottery, smoke Mary Jane, and listen to the Allman Brothers, which is ok by me.

[Johnny Noshoes]

69. my sig line says it all..

nt

[graywarrior]

42. Not all

I'll bet few are.

[Blue_In_AK]

49. I'm an overlord?

Do tell...I hadn't noticed.

[pecwae]

63. Hell yeah!

This "corporate overlord" will start charging 50% interest tomorrow! No, make that 75% and only for consumers under 30.

[patrice]

109. If they are corporate overlords, they were never Hippies.

That's the same thing as saying these teeny-boppers running around in tie-dye and peace symbols, texting away on their phones about American Idol are Hippies.

How many old Hippies do you actually know?

[LanternWaste]

125. I would imagine that applies to all Americans...

"...raised under the loving care of Madison Avenue to be good little consumers."

I would imagine that applies to practically all Americans, regardless of demographics or age.

[proteus_lives]

39. Part of the human condition I suppose.

Different generations sniping at each other.

[AllentownJake]

41. Don't worry

As a younger person, I know that younger people will bitch about my generation when I reach your age, I will develop some grudging respect for people who were in the generation before me, and have some hope in the children of the generation that follows me as being not as stupid as their parents who are about to replace me.

Your generation made amazing progress in the realm of civil rights, and lost some progress on economic issues that your parents had given you. I'm sure my generation will make gains on economic equality but will do something stupid somewhere else that the Generation Y crowd will bitch about.

[EFerrari]

43. You do THAT to a duck and have the nerve to complain about bad vibes?!

Karma, baby.

[graywarrior]

45. Hey, at least I didn't pluck him.

[omega minimo]

48. the real demarcation is the end of literacy

[patrice]

110. 1++++ . . . I know, I know, that was highly literate of me. ;-)

[omega minimo]

117. lol whatev dude lol

:rofl:

[madrchsod]

52. you noticed that also?

when i was young i did`t think the old people were stealing our money or were a big burden on me. i just thought they did`t understand us . course when my kids figured i did`t understand....

actually those here that think we are in the way should grow up or go to another site.

otherwise.."GET THE HELL OF MY LAWN!!!!" :smoke:

[donco]

53. AARP is watching you. nt

[Oldtimeralso]

55. I Agree, as someone that will be on Medicare in 3 months,

the younger generations have really screwed things up. I think abortion should be made retroactive for many people. Yes I am a grumpy old man! (and proud of it)

[Juche]

56. No generation is perfect

I am generation Y/millennial. And we are going to fuck up tons of things I'm sure.

however, the fact is that many mindless dittoheads are geriatric. Thats not an insult, its just a fact Most are white and male too. And I am a white man. If people said 'all white men are evil' because of the dittoheads, that'd piss me off. But being upset that some white males are more gullible would not. Not all elderly are bad people (bad for the country, I mean), but a lot of bad people are elderly. Its not the same thing.

Either way, the average fox viewer and talk radio listener is 65-67. The average O'Reilly listener is about 73. So old age is a factor in mindless right wing beliefs. Then again so is being white or male.

[cabluedem]

58. "Dont give me a hand-me-down world." Classic.

[rug]

61. Tough, they missed a hell of a decade.

[mdmc]

62. never trust anyone over thirty

[Le Taz Hot]

65. My personal favorite is when

DUers wish we would all just "hurry up and die off!" :shrug: It makes me more determined than ever to live to be 100 just to REALLY piss 'em off. :evilgrin:

[Vinca]

66. But . . . we did fuck it up . . . didn't we?

The real tragedy is that the next generation appears to be following in our footsteps.

[Le Taz Hot]

67. Um, no, WE didn't fuck it up.

If you were inactive during the 60's and 70's, (and 80's, 90's & 2000's for that matter) that does not qualify as "we," it qualifies "you." Just a reminder that the "Greatest Generation" was perfectly fine with segregation, internment camps, homosexuality as a mental illness and women as 2nd class citizens. The real tragedy is the same members of our generation that didn't do shit back then are now whining the "we" fucked it all up. :eyes:

[Vinca]

70. Since my autobiography hasn't been written yet,

it's a tad unfair to single me out. But I laud your sainthood.

[Le Taz Hot]

72. Thank you for recognizing it early on.

It saves SO much time. ;-)

[boppers]

68. As a different Gen-X'er, I'm amused by the handoff.

"Hey, it turns out that being arrogant 'know it alls' didn't work. Getting stoned and shagging strangers a lot didn't work. Making signs and puppets and complaining about 'the system' didn't work. Combating a broken binary system with a broken trinary way didn't work."

The "kids today" (I'm 37 now) seem to get it much better than I did, or my parents did. The whole idea of limited ways to solutions, and silly defiant rejection of others, was broken thinking.

Let's take one issue:
The Y's, and millennial kids, seem to have figured out that there's no such thing as being "straight OR gay" (boomers), or "straight OR gay OR bisexual" (X and to some extent, Y generations), but that being "straight AND gay AND bisexual AND questioning AND trans-sexual AND transgendered" is just, well, human and normal.

There's no such thing as "black OR white", "religious OR atheist", "warmonger OR pacifist", etc. It's 'OR' thinking, and it's a horribly broken way of thinking.

The silly, and the intellectually limited barrier, of binary thinking, (and the descendant trinary thinking) is gradually being smashed by the newer generations.

That being said, I do see some hatred and fear going many ways. On DU, it manifests in terms of debate over binary, and trinary, thinking clashing with n-dimensional thinking. I don't think it's gerontophobia though, mostly it's clashes that boil down to people of older generations offering one binary/trinary perspective, and younger people offering n-perspective.

It's not the age causing the problem, it's the thinking style. The thinking style is tangentially related to age, but we don't post ages with every message. We do, however, post our thinking styles.

All that being said, I'm pretty sure that Woodstock accomplished nothing, but the civil rights marches did do something (even though in 1979 schools were *still* being desegregated).

[clear eye]

71. Not until you stirred it up. n/t

[graywarrior]

73. I've been stirred up about it for a long time

[petronius]

81. He said "you STIRRED it up", not "you WERE STIRRED up"

IS (pause) YOUR (pause) HEARING (pause) AID (pause) ON?

:P


(And I think you're right - a lot of people seem to confuse 'baby boomer' with 'winger'. Generational flamewars can be fun if done for play, like the 'my state is better than your state' game, but those things never go well around here...)

[graywarrior]

86. Wait...let me put my teeth in so I can hear you!

[L0oniX]

76. I blame Peter Pan.

[WT Fuheck]

77. Why hate old people?

They are just pathetic.


-kidding!-

[Indenturedebtor]

78. Boomers are currently running the corporations and the government

Do you like the direction we're headed in? Do you like where we're at?

[laughingliberal]

80. The ones running the corporations and government are a very tiny percentage of the population of

baby boomers. And, I do believe, you might find a significant portion of under 50's in the group that is running the corporations and government. I was born in 1955 which is the tail end of the baby boomers. Those born after that are not part of our generation.

I understand the resentment. The generation running the word when I was coming of age had us in a war which killed off 50,000 of our young and we went into significant recession in 1974 which stifled a lot of us who were just starting out then. The people of my generation who bought into the Reagan crap deserve the disdain but they were not the only ones voting for those POS thieves.

[patrice]

112. I haven't had a Boomer boss in decades.

Apathetic, illiterate post-Boomer generations have had no effect on the direction/where we are.

[tonysam]

79. Also add sizeism and ableism to the list

Those are even more acceptable on DU than age bigotry.

[graywarrior]

87. And the newest ism...

Obamaism.

[patrice]

113. 1+~!!

[slackmaster]

82. Youth is wasted on the young

:hi:

[azmouse]

83. The youngest person I ever knew was 82 years old.

She was still working as an Interior Designer. She looked to be in her early 60s at most. She acted like someone who was in her 30s. Just beautiful inside and out.
She is what I aspire to be should I be fortunate enough to live to that age.

[stubtoe]

91. There's something that we can take great pleasure in, though, graywarrior:

Gen X is turning 40.

Ha ha!!

[graywarrior]

93. Thinning hair! LOL!

[Odin2005]

92. Karma's an SOB. Boomers shouldn't have bashed Gen-Xers as evil, lazy slackers.

And projected their generation's narcissism on us Millennials.

[Jennicut]

96. I am 33. I have friends of all ages, from twentysomethings to sixtysomethings.

I go by personality more then age. I have met selfish, horrible people who were very young, very old and all in between.

[Marr]

127. Same. This generational crap is an excuse for people to indulge in a little

tribalism, which always feels good but rarely does any good.

[TheManInTheMac]

97. As a Gen Xer, I would say that...

it's natural to blame the previous generation for all the woes of the world. Did you boomers really think you invented "Trust no one over thirty?"

And in a few years, the Millennials will be coming after my generation. Obama will likely be one of the last Boomer president. It's the way of the world--not gerontophobia.

But you didn't fuck up the world. You torture a duck, but everyone has flaws.

[graywarrior]

100. At least I've been vegetarian for the past 40 years

otherwise, that duck woulda been a cooked goose.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

98. You damn kids git off mah lawn! n/t

[katkat]

101. right, graywarrior

A heck of a lot of younger people think anyone over 50 is ignorant, a technological idiot, feels entitled, and is conservative.

[graywarrior]

103. Some seem actually pissed at people for being old

You know, because they're slower, wrinkly and gray. It's like they think old people aren't hip.

[newportdadde]

102. It gets old listening to boomer co-workers pray for buyouts and brag about retirement.

Just from my own person perspective they come across to this 33 year old as very selfish, not all but I'd say 5 to 1 selfish. I work with mostly boomers at an aging company. I CONSTANTLY hear how they so so want a buyout so they can ride off in the sunset down to Arizona or some southern state were its warm. It gets old hearing "fuck this place I'm just going to retire!". Well retire already then!

Fuck the rest of us with young families, rising healthcare, college etc, fuck us they don't care.

I mean they came of age during a time when there was big growth in the 80s and the 90s, pensions still were still around. They had parents who having lived through very tough times were very family oriented and would help out with grandkids while they built their careers.

Now look at it from our eyes, company pensions are gone, growth is gone, outsourcing is rampant. Help with the grandkids.. yeah right they aren't some stay at home grandma they are busy living life! Whoohoo!

It looks pretty beak out there for us younger workers, I don't think you will see many of us becoming snowbirds in 30 years, we just simply won't have the money no matter how good we save.

I don't blame boomers if anything I'd say I'm jealous I wish I had been able to play with their deck I think I would have done well.

[graywarrior]

105. You're talking to a boomer who's been a slacker for 40 years

I got nothin'. I shoulda worked in the GE for the past 40 years. I would be retired by now and living high on the hog

[patrice]

114. I really am sorry about all of that!!

Not my fault, though, I have been telling people that we should all move in together for years. Take care of one another.

[janx]

108. The Baby Boomer idea is weird.

How many years does it encompass? Twenty? Twenty five? I was born at the end of '57, and supposedly, the Boomers were considered some born after that--until 1960?

:shrug:

[omega minimo]

118. They've shifted the bar several times....

used to be and should be 1960 --- the earliest Boomers were born in '44 as I recall.

[JVS]

120. 44 doesn't work. It's supposed to be the post-wwii baby boom. So it really should be 1946 to start

although some count postwar 1945 births too.

[janx]

111. It has always been that way.

I remember my father saying during the seventies, "Generation gap? This is new? There has always been a generation gap!"

:rofl:

But in the classroom, teaching new undergraduates, I don't feel that way, and I don't think that many of them do either.

[liberalhistorian]

115. To be honest, I really haven't seen that much of it

here. If it exists, then I'm sorry and it's truly sickening.

Seems to me, as a Christian and as a mother, that I've noticed much more Christian-bashing and an anti-child brigade that can be positively vicious and cruel in some of the things they say.

[NYC_SKP]

116. Remind these whippersnappers that, just like us, they're hurtling toward a cold and black death.

And at exactly the same rate.

Of course, it seems like a faster rate as we get older.

:hug:

[MellowDem]

119. The phrase I hate the most is "The Greatest Generation"

You can't rank generations, and whatever stupid fuck came up with that needs to get coal for Christmas. I was reading Time today, and some older gentleman wrote in as to how they were allowed to be much more independant as children than today, and look, they became the "greatest generation!" The sad part is that generation has been told that so much, many of them believe it! If anything, that generation has fucked us up just as much as any that came before it. And I'm sure mine we'll fuck it up just as much for our wonderful little assholes (I say the term endearingly).

So to the boomers out there, blame it on "The Worst Generation", or the ones who started ranking something as generic as a "generation" in the first place. Are boomer's parents the Greatest Generation? Cause of they are, I feel sorry for boomers.

[raccoon]

124. That would be Tom Brokaw.

"whatever stupid fuck came up with that needs to get coal for Christmas. "

and ITA--you can't rank generations.

[Nikki Stone1]

121. Say what?

:wow:

[David Zephyr]

122. It comes with the territory. I love young people, especially radicals. I see the future in them.

I'm so friggin' old that I think I scare young people. I always tell them when they ask for my ID to "be afraid, I am your future".

I think that this crop of American youngsters are everything and more than I could have hoped for. They were so involved in the last election. They are so informed and, maybe I'm in a fog, but I rarely see disrespect from them.

Even the more "rambunctious" DU'ers here give me joy because I see so much passion. The founders of the DU are eons younger than me and just look at what they created out of nothing. Amazing.

By the way, I like your name, graywarrior.:)