I appreciate everyone's kind postings and words, and they may be right. However there are some real tangible benefits to youth one of which is idealism.

The harsh truth is simply that nothing gets done without it. Now the political elite can decry it as "just words", "hope-mongering", or "naivete" but the bottom line is no good developments would have taken place without it. It's what our country was built on. Our "rebellion" was laughed at, our generals made fun of, our Declaration of Independence considered one of the most absurd documents ever written. Time had an affect all right. It proved idealism right. As it has repeatedly from Lincoln to FDR to Kennedy. (Yes I know about Lincoln's hesitancy to free the slaves, but he ultimately took a controversial stance based on what he believed to be right for the good of human dignity.) Time has a way of proving idealism right not wrong. Our society would have you think differently, otherwise we would always demand change and society necessarily fights change. It's a threat to the status quo.

There is an inherent contradiction in a select group of the Baby Boomer's view on this which is youth and idealism in their time was wonderful it was great, it led to all these ground-breaking changes and helped end an unpopular war. It is, by definition, a good thing. Counter-culture and challenging the status quo are inherently good. But now that they're the ones in power, they've changed their mind. Were they simply to admit this were a contradiction (which they can never do with anything concerning them) I would have some respect for them and understand that position. But they won't. They can admit no wrong-doing on their part ever. So how can one give them an inch? They'll make it a mile.

Now there are some who believe that idealism is too dangerous. That taking a chance is too much. That what we've had over the past 8 years is nothing but an empty hope. I disagree. To me George W. Bush (and Dick Cheney's) presidency has been nothing but a continually negative and pessimistic take on humanity. It has argued for war, economic debt, poverty, genocide, and everything that is vile and base about humankind. Anyone who thinks what we have suffered from is "too much hope" over the past 8 years is delusional. It is just the opposite. We have suffered from too little of it.

Everyone is created with inalienable rights, which many of you seem to cite. Yeah I hate to break it to you, that was Thomas Jefferson. Not saying he was perfect, but neither was JFK when it came to Civil Rights and we've essentially beatified him.

The environmental movement. Numerous posts are now going around, not just taking credit for what the 60s did for it but asking what's been done sense. Are you serious? Have you opened a newspaper or turned on a television? There's a little thing called global warming. Last time I checked there's also a burgeoning movement around solar power, wind power, decreased reliance on foreign oil, conservation and a slew of other issues. This is not to say the 60s didn't matter with environmentalism, just that they weren't everything. You should check Teddy Roosevelt and the 1900s. They managed to pass a national park act, clean water act, food safety act and about a dozen other major environmental laws.

I just can't believe that the "hippies" and Boomers are still unable to see anything remotely wrong with their decade. And now they're claiming they were better than the World War II generation. After all what did that generation every do. While the Boomers were getting high and protesting, all their parents had to do was live through a Depression, fight a war (World War II), come home for four years and fight another (Korea). Sounds like a picnic to me.

You guys (and girls) weren't perfect. Just own up to it and quit trying to pretend you were the best thing ever to happen.

We are now being told not only was it great, it was the greatest decade in the 20th century! Really it was! No hyperbole here, no debate, just hands down it was.

And you wonder why historians are starting to question you guys and gals? Geesh.

Oh yeah and now you guys are down to basically destroyed the World War II generation as a bunch of drunk, philandering, woman-and-child abusing louts. Wow. One might argue this is an odd way to view your parents, but, alas, no we know only young people today are the ones without respect. God forbid they have the guts to confront their parents face to face. Many on here simply wait until the World War II generation is dead to villify them. That takes guts. Yeah right.

Also someone on here actually wrote about how the '60s were great in Afghanistan too. Mind you they were from America, they had no real knowledge other than the fact that heck Nixon was in office in the late 60s and early 70s so the people in Afghanistan must have liked the 60s better too.

The Boomers continue driving the VW van off the cliff.