Posted on 07/11/2011 6:57:09 PM PDT by InvisibleChurch
INDIANAPOLIS - This week on Eyewitness News, we begin what we call the Generations Project. All this week, we will look at baby boomers. If you are one, you may learn something about yourself. If you're not, perhaps you will recognize characteristics in someone you know. Either way, we hope it will lead us all to a better understanding of each other.
We've all heard the term "baby boomer." But who fits into the generation?
Baby boomers were born from 1946 to 1964. Their age today is 47 to 65. Like every generation, boomers have unique characteristics and values that shape their lives.
Growing up a baby boomer was the golden age to be a kid. The Space Race played out as families gathered around televisions.
What seemed out of this world was now possible. Polio was cured, and a strong family upbringing gave boomers appreciation for what they had.
Boomers' empowerment and patriotism was shaped by the sacrifices of their parents and grandparents who suffered through the The Great Depression and World War Two.
"Boomers molded very strong core values of idealism, demanding the best from themselves, their employers, their nation, their world," said Chuck Underwood, generational expert.
But those strong ideals were tested when boomers saw politicians fall. They thought they could push through. The generation brought flower power and free love. As boomers started to find themselves, they launched the sexual and drug revolutions and fought for women's rights along with civil rights.
"This has always been an underdog willing to step up to the plate and fight for the less advantaged. And if they haven't sold out that value, America should be in for a brilliant 20 years of leadership," said Underwood.
Underwood is a generational expert who's branded this time as the consciousness movement.
"It began in 1961 ended in 1975," he said.
"The women's movement which directly affected 51 percent of the population, the civil rights movement which affected not just African-Americans but also Jewish people who had been discriminated against. Immigrants from other countries, Hispanics," he said.
"That's why they called us outsiders and they called us freedom riders," said Dr. Thomas L. Brown, pastor and civil rights activist.
Dr. Thomas L. Brown's father, civil rights pioneer Andrew J. Brown, marched in the south with Martin Luther King Jr.
"In the civil rights period, the people were setting the agenda for the cause of what we were saying freedom. We were advocating for integration, but we were also advocating for freedom and education," said Brown.
Minorities weren't alone in their quest to be heard. So too were women who wanted to prove they were just as qualified as men in the workplace.
"I have always felt equal in opportunities to men," said Allison Melangton, Indianapolis Super Bowl Committee. "I always had a lot of dreams and aspirations but I probably did not anticipate leading a Super Bowl."
Melangton is one of only three women in NFL history to run the local Host Committee Super Bowl effort. While there's been a perceived pressure for women to prove their worth in the workplace, Melangton relishes in the Baby Boomer ideal that there's strength in numbers and others who've paved the road perhaps lessen the load.
"There's a couple of women who took me under their wing when I was in my twenties and were great role models," said Melangton.
And for many, their role models were those who served our country.
"I grew up in a generation where my and my friend's fathers served in World War Two so we did feel strongly and in a positive manner about military service," said Tim Slongo, baby boomer.
"I just remember a lot of protesting and things like that and a lot of people were against it," said Mark Turner, boomer.
The Vietnam War was another defining movement.
"The war protest movement changed our government's way of thinking about military combat forever," said Underwood.
Regardless of where people stood on the issue, they were not afraid to vocalize their opinions - a true trademark of the baby boomer generation, people with strong core values of idealism and empowerment who challenged our nation's biggest institutions and social issues.
What do you think about the baby boomer generation? If you're a boomer, what important events helped define your generation?
I’m talking about the 1960s counter-culture who empowered the dictators.
I’m trying to follow you but I don’t know what your posts have been about.
I think the net effect of the Baby Boomers on the world has been negative.
I think that the worst damage to America and to the world was that of the, say 60 year period, before 1980, and that the years since roughly 1980 have been less destructive, in other words, once the boomers reached adulthood, they have proven to be better, and have moved America to the right of where it was, and that has to be done inside of the box that the previous generations created with their mass replacement of the American electorate with foreign born democrats and their offspring.
Boomers only got the reigns of power in the late 1980s and in the 90s, for instance the first presidential election that all boomer born voters could vote in, was in 1984.
Boomers are much younger and recently adults, than people think.
I agree but the damage continues to be done beyond anything anyone ever expected on all social and economic levels.
But what I find amazing is that even in the middle of all of this chaos and upheaval I do so many positive things going on.
The country looks almost like it has a split personality or is schizo. One side wants this country to commit national suicide and the other wants things to be better.
For all of the damage that the Boomers have done a lot of good is going to come out of it but it going to take time to recover.
We are never coming out of this, only the rate of decay can be slowed, our destruction was put in place by the leaders prior to 1975. John F. Kennedy’s Immigration bill was the poison pill that finished off what Roosevelt had already wounded.
I have to disagree with you completely 100 percent. I see all sorts positive changes occurring even as America and the West collapses. I see an interesting between the collapse of the West and the fall of the ancient Roman Empire. Christianity rose from the ashes of that civilizational collapse and went on to do great things.
The conservative movement is a trend of Americans moving toward a more Godly way of things which the Left is scared of. At some point we’ll hit bottom but when exactly will that take place I don’t know. When we do the decent, Godly Americans will assert control and straighten things up. It’s not going to be easy but in the end we’ll ask how we made it through such a rough period of time.
Immigration will create a new nation, the constitution, and the American people cannot be duplicated, or resurrected, or saved, they will continue to shrink in percentages, and influence and fade into memory.
I'm going to assume that you would be happy if the last Democrat President that America ever elected was in 1964.
Well, they did that, if you only count the white vote.
To tell you the truth I don’t like either party. The Dems are left-wing Leftists and the Pubbies are right-wing Leftists. A Leftist by any other name is a Leftists and I don’t care for them.
I liken the relationship the two political parties have with one another like a domineering wife (Dems) and the spineless husband who both work to forward the Leftist agenda.
Whitey has forgotten his mortality temporarily but when he sees it again he’ll start pro-creating with a vengeance.
Even if that happened, which it won’t, nothing can overcome immigration and it’s third world, especially Islamic birthrates.
But if neither party matters to you, then it doesn’t matter how they vote anyway.
For goodness sakes, people, after reading some of the comments, I have to say it wasn’t the Boomers that screwed up this country or the world! It was frickin’ liberalism that did that. Most of us grew up in good families, got jobs and raised our own good families. We paid taxes and played by the rules. In other words, we lived and live conservative lives. You can say the same thing for other generations as well. Lumping everyone into some kind of “ behavioral group” by year is damned foolish.
When the Pubbies get some testicular fortitude maybe they’ll be worth voting for. It will require women like Palin to do so.
Until then don’t vote, there are already enough people voting, they can make all the decisions for us.
Voting for more tyranny doesn’t solve things.
See post 54, don’t vote.
It’s worth voting if you have the numbers on your side. The conservative movement has grown large enough now to impact elections to the point it is scaring the Left like nothing else.
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