As a fellow GenXer I bristled at the absolutist nature of your subtitle and the column that followed. I love your stuff, Heather and will go out of my way to read it most of the time (I've never read TV writers before you!).

But, I have to quibble on two points. The first was perfectly summed up by scotjohn: you don't speak for me. This was a great piece about you, and yeah there's certainly a lot of common ground between you and I, but you undermine the piece by taking a "we" stance.

More importantly, I think, is that for me it wasn't that I didn't "get it": what the Boomers were idolizing about the 60's. As a musician I revered the Beatles and Stones and Hendrix and the Doors. As a reader I devoured all of Vonnegut's work and Joseph Heller and the Beats. I "got" modern art and pop-art; I "got" quantum physics (for a layperson); I definitely "got" the women's movement and the environmental movement and civil rights and gay rights. As a lover of my country I totally got JFK, MLK and RFK.

To my way of thinking, the problem with "the Boomers" was they were fucking stuck! back there. It wasn't that they wouldn't shut up about the past, it was that they wouldn't offer up any alternatives to Reaganism and consumerism and evangelism. All the yammering on about how "people came together, yadda, yadda, yadda." Well, if it was really all that great, why did y'all give up on it?

The Boomers were all about tearing down barriers and for that they deserve respect and gratitude. But, they did most of that work when the bulk of them were in college 40 years ago. Once the barriers came down, they offered nothing to build up in their place and America has decided, finally, to move on to a new generation.

Thank God.

And one final comment: No one seems to ever mention that culture and political change in the 60's didn't come from Baby Boomers! The leaders of the civil rights movement, the rock-n-rollers, artists, intellectuals and politicians of the 60's were nearly all born before or during WWII. Most of those college kids were followers, which is why their generation failed to offer any real leaders to our nation (yes, even WJC wasn't all that great a leader--he was a great manager); followers who recognized a better, more progressive path to be sure, but one that was blazed by others. That's never stopped them from taking all the credit though.

I found this essay to be very entertaining and thought provoking. Broad strokes like these rarely hold up to scrutiny, but they can point one in a direction not previously considered. For that, thank you.

The one line that jumped out at me was the one most of you seem to be poo-pooing regarding information technology.

I think Mr. Lind may be right about this. Certainly, IT has irrevocably changed the nature of society, science and communications. But, in the midst of a potentially catastrophic environmental crisis brought on primarily by our reliance on the tools of the petroleum-based industrial revolution it seems to me that actual manufacturing will be a--if not the--primary catalyst for change, growth and sustainability.

The infrastructure that's going to be required to take advantage of alternative fuel will need to be massive, pervasive and global. We will not be able to sit in front of screens and log onto networks to get this done. Factories will need to be built, or at least re-tooled, people will need to be trained, a distribution system must be put in place, etc.

This is serious business, and while IT is revolutionary it may not be so in the way that Lind suggests in necessary for his thesis.

Thanks all.

That's VERY funny! I laughed out loud, and it's way too late for me to be doing that.

You know what we mean, though ;-)

You said it yourself: we're not joiners. We don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to anything, right? So, why even try to be the voice of a generation? (see what I did there).

I've never, ever posted anything like this, and it'll probably get flagged. So be it.

Fuck you

My 7 and 10 year old know almost as many curses as I do, and they only learned shit and goddammit from my occasional toe-stubbing slips. The rest they learned at school on the playground (or at least my 10 year old did; my 7 year old may very well have learned the rest from his sister!).

Like Carlin used to always say: these words have no power that we don't give them. I would add that we give away some of our power if we believe them to hold any of their own. Of course context and common-sense come into play, but fines and all this hoopla only serve to empower small-mindedness.

In this week after a momentous election, can we move on to substantive things? You too, Glenn?

Beautiful. Just beautiful. I had no idea that your "Leonard" was the same Leonard! The apple doesn't fall far. Blessings to you and your family.