Okay, so this is several weeks overdue, but I’m just getting around to it.
For years now, mush-mouthed Tom Brokaw, the NBC Nightly News anchor emeritus, has turned his career to extolling the virtues of the Greatest Generation. That is, the generation that suffered through the Great Depression and the Second World War. Books, documentaries, speeches, interviews, and on and on and on and on …
I reached my limit with NBC’s coverage of the London Olympics, when broadcasts of events was suspended for an hour or two for a Tom Brokaw documentary about … WINSTON FUCKING CHURCHILL! What the fucking fuck? What did Churchill have to do with the fucking Olympics?
I used to really like Brokaw. Last night, I caught a brief glimpse of the DNC and he mumbled some comment that I didn’t even understand. Alright, guy, for real, your job is communications, when you can no longer speak clearly, it might be time to step away from the mic. You can still write “insightful cutting edge” glurg, but please quit mumbling through the TV, its just depressing.
Hell, this is way out of date. Most people in my generation are just waiting for the Boomers to die off. Now THERE’S a generation that completely full of shit. At least the Greatest Generation actually accomplished things…
I’m also mad about an episode of Pawn Stars I saw about 12 weeks ago. They obviously staged some thing with Chumlee breaking some box. It was so fake it hurt. THE OUTRAGE!
Guess what…we Baby Boomers did change American politics. Black children went to white schools (that actually had books!) Women’s salaries rose to (gasp) 50 cents on the dollar that men made. (Still only $0.75. We have a way to go.) Gays were, at least, validated as human beings. (Waaaay long way to go.) We protested the Vietnam war and Tricky Dick resigned.
We started Earth Day. Zero Population Growth. Reproductive rights.
And we stood on the shoulders of our fathers to do it; the people who fought the Great Depression and a War, who dug in and tunnelled a way out. We were able to protest and bring about change because of what those people won for us: a right to want more. Without all of US people, where would you be now?
You can’t understand Tom Brokaw’s mumblings? Then read the book.
This happened when Baby Boomers were, at best, teenagers. The people who actually made these things happen were born before the Second World War. Martin Luther King was not a Boomer.
I have nothing against Boomers or Greatest Generationers. I just want Brokaw to stop playing his shtik where it doesn’t belong — like during Olympics coverage.
