Philadelphia 2035 (top 10, discrimination, women)

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

I'm not saying younger people can't take on certain leadership rules. There's always precocious and dynamic individuals that rise to the challenge early. I just don't believe it's necessary or prudent to tell everyone over Age X: pass the torch now! Do not collect 200 dollars.

You have to start somewhere. It won't magically happen...well, you do know that, I think.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by kyb01

You have to start somewhere. It won't magically happen...well, you do know that, I think.

I do agree, and I'm privileged to know some brilliant young minds that are making the foray into city politics.

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

Boomers are the bridge generation. I remember hearing an announcement that the last Civil War veteran had died. My parents & grandparents knew Civil War veterans. For the most part, we have adapted to the new & modern. Some is an improvement to the world that we were born into, other things. . .not so much. We were born into a country where there was segregation, women were denied jobs based on gender, & outright paid up to half of what the men made. Things aren't fixed completely, but it's better. The object of the game shouldn't be to blame us for everything that isn't right, but to pick up the fight & carry it to the finish line.

Yea, I always think that we boomers are not given enough credit for the progressive changes we made during our heyday. We saw the institution of the Civil Rights Act, which, among other things gave us the Affirmative Action Program aimed at eliminating workplace discrimination of women and people of color. Title IX equalized the investment in athletic programs for women and men. The EPA was established during the boomer age, as were the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Oh, lest some millennial think they invented Earth Day, the first of these occurred in 1970.

I get it that no generation gives a perfect world to the next one, but boomers did an ok job improving the one we inherited. The millennials will find themselves in the same predicament when their handoff comes. All this said, I am impressed with this new generation and very hopeful about the improvements they will make now that it's their world to shape.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by Pine to Vine

Yea, I always think that we boomers are not given enough credit for the progressive changes we made during our heyday. We saw the institution of the Civil Rights Act, which, among other things gave us the Affirmative Action Program aimed at eliminating workplace discrimination of women and people of color. Title IX equalized the investment in athletic programs for women and men. The EPA was established during the boomer age, as were the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Oh, lest some millennial think they invented Earth Day, the first of these occurred in 1970.

I get it that no generation gives a perfect world to the next one, but boomers did an ok job improving the one we inherited. The millennials will find themselves in the same predicament when their handoff comes. All this said, I am impressed with this new generation and very hopeful about the improvements they will make now that it's their world to shape.

I didn't mean to imply that boomers were the scourge of the political earth (though most of those laws/programs were instituted by the greatest generation and older). I don't think any one generation is characteristically good or bad. I'm only saying that since boomers now form the core of our senior statesmen and women, they shape the discourse in ways good, bad, and indifferent. As I expressed before, I see no urgent need to boot them (or anyone else) from politics en masse.

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

I didn't mean to imply that boomers were the scourge of the political earth (though most of those laws/programs were instituted by the greatest generation and older). I don't think any one generation is characteristically good or bad. I'm only saying that since boomers now form the core of our senior statesmen and women, they shape the discourse in ways good, bad, and indifferent. As I expressed before, I see no urgent need to boot them (or anyone else) from politics en masse.

I wasn't posting as a result of any of your posts and I agree with your post above. Southbound_295 just caused me to reflect.

While I'm at it, however, boomers also launched the "gay rights" movement. Some of the first demonstrations in the country took place right in front of Independence Hall in 1965. The is an historical marker about those early protests catty corner from there now. And of course, the Stonewall riots were in 1969.

The 60s were an amazing decade. I was late to the party (born in 1955), but I was an early consumer of popular culture.

[Clark Park]

Originally Posted by Pine to Vine

I wasn't posting as a result of any of your posts and I agree with your post above. Southbound_295 just caused me to reflect.

While I'm at it, however, boomers also launched the "gay rights" movement. Some of the first demonstrations in the country took place right in front of Independence Hall in 1965. The is an historical marker about those early protests catty corner from there now. And of course, the Stonewall riots were in 1969.

The 60s were an amazing decade. I was late to the party (born in 1955), but I was an early consumer of popular culture.

True.

It could be argued that the Greatest Generation began the foundation of the LGBT Rights Movement with the groundbreaking early "Homophile Movement" (think of Dr. Franklin Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Morris Kight, etc.) but it was the younger Boomers who protested at Stonewall and organized the first Gay Pride Marches.

We Boomers can take credit for catapulting the Environmentalist, Animal Rights, Women's Rights, and other movements as well.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

I do agree, and I'm privileged to know some brilliant young minds that are making the foray into city politics.

Good to hear, and I hope that should you ever feel the urge, you do the same. Our local political culture I find dispiriting after all these years here, and I think it's ripe for a change.

(I also am somewhat dispirited because I think the local Democratic machine has become ossified and as corrupt as the Republican machine it replaced 66 years ago, but I don't see the city Republicans as a viable alternative right now, nor do I see any other alternative on the horizon.)

A comment, though, on your remark in passing about Boomers having "retrograde" ideas:

Not all of us do, but most of us become more conservative as we age. It's partly a function of having some investment in the way things are, for better and for worse, and partly a function of accumulated experience and observation. Winston Churchill, one of the best sources of quotes ever, put it thusly:

"If you're a conservative at 20, you have no heart. If you're a liberal at 60, you have no head."

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by Pine to Vine

The 60s were an amazing decade. I was late to the party (born in 1955), but I was an early consumer of popular culture.

I was a little later to the party, but the year of my birth, 1958, was the peak year for births in the Baby Boom, which demographers say began in 1946 and ended in 1964. (That's one helluva long generation.)

Yet whenever I hear talk of "Boomers," I feel they're always talking about someone older than I am.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Pine to Vine

Yea, I always think that we boomers are not given enough credit for the progressive changes we made during our heyday. We saw the institution of the Civil Rights Act, which, among other things gave us the Affirmative Action Program aimed at eliminating workplace discrimination of women and people of color. Title IX equalized the investment in athletic programs for women and men. The EPA was established during the boomer age, as were the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Oh, lest some millennial think they invented Earth Day, the first of these occurred in 1970.

I get it that no generation gives a perfect world to the next one, but boomers did an ok job improving the one we inherited. The millennials will find themselves in the same predicament when their handoff comes. All this said, I am impressed with this new generation and very hopeful about the improvements they will make now that it's their world to shape.

Hmmm, the Civil Rights Act was signed in the summer of 1964. I was heading into 10th grade that fall. I was 14 years old. Boomers had nothing to do with the Civil Rights Act most of whom were children at the time. But, yes, Boomers, and everyone else, were obviously impacted by it.

The first Earth Day, afaik, was here in Philadelphia started by Ira Einhorn who killed his girlfriend, stuffed her body in a trunk and ran away to France until Lynn Abraham got him extradited.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by ElijahAstin

I didn't mean to imply that boomers were the scourge of the political earth (though most of those laws/programs were instituted by the greatest generation and older). I don't think any one generation is characteristically good or bad. I'm only saying that since boomers now form the core of our senior statesmen and women, they shape the discourse in ways good, bad, and indifferent. As I expressed before, I see no urgent need to boot them (or anyone else) from politics en masse.

Really? So you see no reason to boot out one Boomer in particular from the WH?