In Canada: clergyman bemoans boomer disintegration

The ways of peace and love have been stripped to the bone and ground up for cannon fodder. The ways of fairness and equality have been eaten by the greedy and defecated into huge mountains that block out the light. Humankind has done the worst it could have done and despite all of our awareness and consciousness we have failed to intercede. "Radical Priest Decries Damage to Spirit by Neocons on 9/11" The Canadian

Selfish boomers crowding out elderly agenda

At times, it seems like this week’s national conference on aging is more a conference on boomers, given the number of seminars devoted to issues about the baby boom generation. There are sessions on marketing to boomers, profiting from the boomers, consumer research about the boomers, enticing boomers to volunteer and more. On Thursday, a panel of academics and analysts focused on some of the contradictions within a generation that includes people born from 1946 through 1964. National Aging Conference is Boomer-Centric" Herald Tribune (Florida) scroll down

Boomer WWII, Vietnam obsessions overshadow Iraq debacle

...[T]he Vietnam War was the defining political issue of the “Baby Boomer” generation’s youth. Many of this generation developed their entire personal political outlook based on their rejection of the Vietnam War. They consequently see international and national affairs through the lens of the 1960s and the Vietnam War. Many of the Baby Boomer writers, Senators, and talking heads who now run America instinctively compared the major international conflict of their youth to the major international conflict of their adulthood. "Looking at Iraq Through the Lens of History" Stanford Review

In praise of a boomer-free workplace

Barack Obama is dissing the baby boomers. But he's doing it tactfully, so people are talking about generational issues in politics, and I'm anticipating spillover into the workplace, which also needs this frank discussion. I founded an online marketplace for city governments with a 50-something guy with a lot of experience. Our investors, most over 50, were all his friends. They acted like it was impossible that I could have learned things fast enough to get into a room with them. One asked me to leave a meeting at such an inappropriate moment that even my partner was shocked. "Bye-Bye Boomers: How Obama Can Change the Workplace" The Hook

Flower child fascism: boomers dominate all levels of government

A Scripps analysis, the first such look at these demographics of power, found that more than 55 percent of America's current governors, state lawmakers, and congressional representatives and senators were born between 1946 and 1964, the era generally tagged as the baby-boom generation. The total tally excludes about 10 percent of the officials nationwide because their birth dates were not found or were in dispute. "Boomer Power Holds Sway at State, National Levels" News and Tribune (Indiana) And haven't had a fresh idea in decades...

Millennials: rejecting the boomer path

The days of loyalty to one employer, 60-hour work weeks and a willingness to pay some dues before advancing may be coming to an end as baby boomers retire. As employees born between 1943 and 1964 begin planning their exit from the work force, many of their successors will come from the generation of 81 million born between 1982 and 2002. "Millennial Generation Won't Be Much Like Baby Boomers" Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Has boomer selfishness infected the culture?

While staring at your own reflection in the computer screen last week, lost in dreams all about you, perhaps you noticed a headline on the Seattle P-I's Web site: "Think you're 'special'? That's not necessarily a good thing." "What? That's crazy. I'm super special," you probably thought. Then you noticed that the story was about people younger than yourself (or, worse yet, it was about people your own age), which immediately ticked you off. Surely you are every bit as selfish and egomaniacal as those trendy hipsters. You have a blog, a MySpace page, Facebook, Friendster and Flickr accounts, and a Team Me T-shirt with your picture on it to validate that claim. OK, you don't, because you're lazy, but you so could. You're just as full of yourself as the next guy. "Super Special? We're All Part of 'Me' Generation" Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Boomer retirement to accelerate national decline

It's doesn't get much ink or air time. It's not a sexy issue, like terrorism, though it's probably just as great a threat to the country's future well-being. The Soviet Union, it's worth recalling, was never defeated militarily; it went bankrupt. The British empire also went belly- up financially, exhausted by two wars and social welfare programs that brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy until Margaret Thatcher reversed the downward slide. Ditto old Rome; once it could no longer pay its barbarian mercenaries, they sacked the place. It's a sobering history. So why aren't we doing something to avoid this dire fate? Be cause it's not yet on our doorstep. It's still the can American politicians, in a bipartisan piece of political malfeasance, kick down the road to the next generation of would-be leaders. But not much longer. "Our Falling Standard of Living Should Be the Issue" Newark Star-Ledger (New Jersey)

Boomers and climate change: do as we say not as we do

...[T]he boomers have figured out it’s mankind’s actions that are primarily responsible for any temperature variations we experience. It seems the baby-boomer generation is the one that can profoundly affect, for better or worse, the physical well-being of the planet in a way no other generation has ever been able to do. Of course, that means the baby boomers have the moral right to demand that all human beings everywhere fundamentally change their lives, economies and standard of living – except for all the boomers who like their big cars and houses – because Earth depends on them. That sure is a lot of responsibility to shoulder. "Climates Then and Now: Baby Boomers Know" Nashua Telegraph (New Hampshire)

Hard-living boomers face more health problems than previous generation

Could baby boomers really have more health problems than their predecessors did at the same age? Or is it possible they just complain more? Experts aren't sure what to make of a federally supported study unveiled Monday that indicates early baby boomers are approaching retirement in poorer health than their counterparts 12 years earlier. "What Ails Boomers?" Cleveland Plain Dealer

A legacy tarnished by Iraq war

Many of our law makers who voted for the Iraq War are part of our generation and it begs the question; just how did they forget the lessons of Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and such musical prophets like John Lennon and George Harrison. Were they not paying attention to the speeches and songs of this brave new world? As boomers, we had a healthy distrust of our government. In speaking out against this war time and time again, we are truly rebels with a cause and we wonder how can our brethren who voted for this war could do so. Were they not paying attention to that golden time of opportunity when we had within our grasp to really change a war ravaged world. "If We Dare To Imagine, We Can Become Our Own Greatest Generation" Op-Ed News