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Lowering the Boom on Boomers

Ever since I learned I am not a boomer — I’m too old — I have had a terrible inferiority complex. Every day, I would see another story about how boomers were changing America. They were the pig moving through the python, spending their accumulated wealth on travel and leisure, and using their accumulated knowledge to solve our country’s social and political problems.

 

So it was with some pleasure, I must admit, that I opened my Wall Street Journal this spring to the headline: “Boomers to This Year’s Grads: We are Really, Really Sorry.” Here were people like Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana, Michael Bennet, senator from Colorado, and Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, apologizing on behalf of boomers for the mess they were leaving graduates. Daniels told the graduating class of Butler University that boomers have been “self-absorbed, self-indulgent and, all too often, just plain selfish.”

 

Talk about going from the penthouse to the outhouse. Even though I am forever prevented from joining their exalted ranks, I actually felt sorry for boomers after reading the remarks of these commencement speakers.

 

However, my faith in boomers was quickly restored when The Journal ran the following story: “This Boomer Isn’t Going to Apologize.” The writer, Stephen Moore, an editor at the paper, did a stellar job in defending what boomers have contributed to the world.

 

All this fuss did make me think maybe I’m better off being part of a no-name generation. It’s a lot less pressure never having to say you’re sorry.

— Lute Harmon Sr., Editor