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"Real" history always begins the day we were born. When the generation that follows yours has had its way, you'll find your own generation was to blame.

Well, now you're back in my camp. The boomers are the guilty g-g-generation. Everything I have listed (and you've ignored) are the legacy of boomers - we're the g-g-generation that flushed our nation's values, heritage, ideals, traditions and institutions en mass. Easy to forget our rhetoric and actions when the chickens come home to roost, eh?

Now, on the issue of trans-generational blame (which you attempted first), I would only say that when Xer's, Yer's and Zer's come into power, the resultant events will come from two quarters:

1. The truly lost generation (sorry Mr. Kerouac, that moniker belongs to the boomer progeny) has no moral compass, no institutional support and no rooting in accurate history. They are the firstborn of the American apostasy. If they go off the cliff, it will be no surprise seeing that their historical and moral senses were obliterated by the boomers.

2. If the boomer's children and grandchildren recognize their lost heritage, reassert traditional values and fortify our national values in law and culture, then they stand a good chance of striking a blow for civilization as great (possibly greater) than the WWII generation. In this case, historically, the boomers will be forced to kneel in homage to a wiser and more courageous generation.

In either case, boomers are to blame. The core reason, and one you can't address, is the failure of our g-g-generation to communicate in word and deed the sacred trust of one generation to another to pass on the meaning of Americanism and it's duties. Clearly, the boomers are the link in the succession chain that has failed.

If you're smarting and want to vindicate your personal virtue, feel free. I do not condemn all boomers - not by a long shot. Many of us were (are) true to our given moral traditions and Americanism. It is, however, the zeitgeist (another boomer relic) of our g-g-generational cohort to veer into treason, apostasy and degeneracy. Real nice legacy and entirely defining for our first representative President, X42.

Well, perhaps the WWII generation is the greatest. It suffered through a depression that wasn't their fault and then fought and won WWII. The depression was suffered through because no one had another choice. Then, the depression was ended, not by anything done in the U.S. but by the onset of WWII. After the end of WWII, America, being virtually the only major power in the world untouched by the war, became the industrial engine and breadbasket for the world - had a captive market so to speak. Then the "Greatest Generation" ran for various offices, including congress, and passed laws to ensure that their sons would not be drafted and serve in Vietnam; such as college deferments, national defense deferments, deferments for congressional aides, etc. The one deferment that was available to "everyone" was eliminated in 1965. This was the "marriage deferment". One didn't need in political pull, power, or privilege for this. So, being available to everyone, it was done away with. bottom line; you can label these people the "greatest generation" if you want, but frankly, I don't buy it.

Well, now you're back in my camp.

You seem to have missed my dripping sarcasm.

The boomers are the guilty g-g-generation.

I disagree.

If you're smarting and want to vindicate your personal virtue, feel free.

My position isn't about my personal virtue. I'm trying to get you to understand that the boomer generation is no more, nor less virtuous than the generations before or since. The rise of a media with a louder voice came at a time that allowed the voices of the worst of the boomer generation to become telegraphed. Before the first baby boomer was born, this nation had already begun the slide.