Max Hastings in the book Nemesis, says something along the lines of “They were not so much the Greatest Generation but the generation to whom the greatest things happened.”
No it wasn’t.
Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955 – The oldest Baby Boomer was 9 years old.
Desegregating Little Rock schools, 1957 – Oldest Baby Boomers are 11 years old.
Greensboro sit-ins, 1960 – Oldest Baby Boomers are 14 years old.
Freedom Rides, 1961 – Oldest Baby Boomers are 15 years old.
Medger Evers organizes protests in Mississippi, 1962 – The oldest baby Boomer is 16 years old.
James Meredith and the integration of the University of Mississippi, 1962 – Oldest baby Boomer is 16 years old.
Protests in Albany, Georgia, 1963 – The oldest Baby Boomer is 17 years old.
Birmingham campaign, 1963 – The oldest Baby Boomer is 17 years old.
March on Washington, 1963 – The oldest Baby Boomer is 17 years old.
Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964 – The oldest Baby Boomer is 18 years old.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 – The oldest Baby Boomer is 18 years old.
Selma to Montgomery marches, 1965 – The oldest Baby Boomer is 19 years old.Unless you are arguing that the foot soldiers in the the Civil Rights Movement were largely teenagers, you are incorrect in this claim.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
Except nobody would say it was the best of times - maybe the best of people in the worst of times. But even people who were not in oppressive circumstances were doing some great work then, in almost any field you can think of - particularly in cultural, material, scientific, and civic endeavors. Today, of course, we skip over most of the culture, and remember the great tide of events and the people we knew.
Yeah, I’m technically a baby-boomer based on my year of birth, and I was still in elementary school in 1968.
Ed
It would be like voting for their grandchild. He is the youngest candidate, and that’s going to be tough for some people.
Okay, it would be like voting for their ‘colored’ grandchild, and some can’t imagine that. But what is worse, acknowledging a prejudice (and we all have them; some people can’t fathom a woman as the Commander-in-Chief), or completely denying it, but in the privacy of the booth pulling the lever along race lines?
Prehaps there are as many who say they wouldn’t, but do, as those who say they would, but don’t.
My Pop is just a hair younger, he is favoring Obama and if Clinton wins the Nom he will vote for McCain who is a only a few years younger. In his retirement community many of the older senior are voting for whichever Democrat wins of course they live in NJ so lean democratic.
I have a healthy respect for a generation that toughed out the Great Depression & WWII. However, they were also a people of their time. So the Greatest Generation is a nice term and compliment, but hardly provable.
Jim
I think it’s a shame that the Baby Boomers so often get the credit for what was actually largely accomplished by what is often called the “silent generation.” They were the depression-era babies, and IMO, they embodied many of the best traits of both the Greatest Generation and the Boomers.
well maybe this “silent generation” should speak up, because i never heard of them. :eek:
No… they’re simply inspired by what Obama has to say …
I mostly extrapolated the feelings of an entire generation by looking at the percentage of white elderly who voted for Obama… it’s a pretty low percentage. And it’s not just in one state… it’s mostly everywhere. Doesn’t that make you wonder?
Maybe you haven’t heard the term, but you must know they exist…they aren’t old enough to be the Greatest Generation, who fought in WWII, but they were born before it, so they aren’t Boomers, either. My parents are part of this generation, and they are typical of it…they have a strong sense of duty to family, community, and country, with a progressive mindset that the Greatest Generation didn’t have. These folks were just the right age to be at the forefront of the events & movements that Fear Itself listed a few posts back.
I’m not sure that that is their fault. The silent generation comprises, roughly, the people born between 1926 and 1946.
This would include such silent individuals as Jim Baker, Colin Powell, William Sessions, Alan Bloom, Stephen Sondheim, Shel Silverstein, Tom Monaghan, Gus Grissom, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Jimmy Breslin, along with such “quiet” persons as Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson, Mike Love, and Al Jardine, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and on and on. (I am presuming that anyone for whom i did not provide a link should be sufficiently well known to not require that assistance.)
(Hit submit while looking for preview.)
The “silent” generation also includes at least one other person who was not particularly obscure: Martin Luther King, jr.
It is not racist to think the world is racist.
-FrL-
Good list, Tom…I’ll throw in all four Beatles…born between 1940 and 1945. Of course, they are not American, but they are excellent examples of Silent Generation members without whom the Boomers might not have been what they were.
“Generations”, the book that was mentioned earlier and is the seminal work in generational theory, has the following dates for each of the generations discussed in this thread:
Greatest/G.I., 1901-1924
Silent, 1925-1942
Boomers, 1943-1960
If you’re at all interested in discussions along generational lines, or US history in general, you need to read this book.
Sorry…I had a typo in my last post…The Beatles were born between 1940 and 1943, not 1945.
The Vietnam War Memorial was installed long before a national monument to WW-II. If public recognition wasn’t as forthcomming for Nam Veterans it was because of people like John Kerry who lied in front of a camera and called them murderers. That and nobody gets a parade for pulling out early (not even Clinton). Some things are hard to swallow and the shortcomings of Vietnam was one of them.
What is that word I’m looking for? Prevarica…? No. Mendaci…? Not quite it, either. Calling Magiver a person who accepted a right-wing lie whole hog and is repeating it as truth years, even decades, after it was proven false? Yeah, that’s the one that doesn’t have a stickie.
What’s the word for someone who testifies about events he didn’t witness… The correct word is “liar”. Unless a lawyer does it, then it’s “fucking liar”.