How did I get so old?

A few months ago, I posted about my shock and denial when I had received my medicare card in the mail. I went through the stages of “How the hell did I get so old?” to “This has to be a mistake,” to the final acceptance, “Well this sucks.”

I was part of the baby boomers, born towards the end of 1946; I grew up during a time when life offered you a variety of great possibilities, but only if you were a white man. Bear with me on this.

Being a second generation Italian American, my sisters and I were expected to graduate from High School, get married and have children. College was not in the picture if you were female so my first job was as a long distance operator for Bell Telephone.

There were so many things happening as I grew up. The sound of music was changing and fast. We had our Motown sounds and we had the British Invasion, my favorite to this day is the Beatles. Change was also in the air with the Civil Right’s Movement and Women’s Liberation. We had the Space Program, landing on the Moon, but we also had an unpopular war, Vietnam.

My Generation found a way to be heard and to right the wrongs. We protested and we marched. We protested against Segregation and War, pushing instead for World Peace, Civil Rights and equality between all men and all women. We were supposed to set the World back on track. Did we?

If you read the papers and listen to the news from around the world, we seem to be going backwards and fast. Racism is alive and thriving, human slavery is big business, there are no jobs, the Space Program is flat lining and the American Dream is going down a rabbit’s hole. There are screaming matches between normally sensible people about the 99% and the 1% and as far as the Women’s Liberation motto, “You’ve come a long way baby,” we now have committee of men deciding on women’s birth control issues. Our education system is in the toilet because we just don’t have enough money…but somehow, there is always money for WAR.

So we have a lot of work ahead of us, and by us, I mean my fellow baby boomers. We need to inspire and lead this country back on its feet and we do this by stopping the clown acts being performed by our politicians. Campaigns should focus on getting this country back on track, not mud slinging, or insults against our President. We need to stand by him and face the world united, because our enemies are laughing at us, and we no longer frighten them. Why? We’re divided.

Get your sneakers ready, oil the wheels on your walkers, we need to get out there and say, “Enough is enough.”

                                             PEACE