Boomers’ example could be legacy

This week the earliest Baby Boomers n 79 million people born between 1946 and 1964 n turned 65 and marked a milestone for the generation that can be either credited with or blamed for changing the world.

When considering any group it is not typically fair to make sweeping generalizations that seldom apply to everyone, yet the boomers are recognized by generalizations.

Boomers are identified as the generation that collectively bucked the system, questioned authority, and ultimately became the establishment they once resisted.

Boomers insisted there was more to life than the competitive gathering of material possessions. Then became one of the largest consumer groups on record.

Boomers marched for civil rights of individuals only to eventually surrender their collective civil liberties to big government.

Boomers were shaken from the protective shelter their parents built for them when they witnessed that a president could be assassinated and that politicians were not always honest.

Boomers grew bitter when they were told to participate in a war that lost public support and carried only a theoretical objective.

Boomers watched the shrinking of a middle class and witnessed the widening gap between those that have and those that have not.

Boomers also influenced social awareness and acceptance, advanced health care so that life expectancies have increased by 15 years since the date they first arrived, and participated in the expanding of technology n to the degree that some depend on their grandchildren to help them operate the latest electronic gadgets.

Boomers lived life for today, only to find that they were financially unprepared for tomorrow.

Boomers realized that they would not experience golden years of relaxation like their parents. So, many resolved themselves to find satisfaction in their careers and treat work they enjoy as retirement.

Boomers should have gained, during the past 65 years, a great deal of experience and a reasonable amount of wisdom.

Today saw the 112th Congress take office. It is a collective group where boomers represent the majority. In that body, as well as locally, it is time for boomers to invest their traditional activism and apply what they have learned to provide the leadership necessary to get government and the economy into better shape than it was when they found it. Otherwise, their lasting legacy might be simply that the boomers went bust.