I read Neil Weinberg’s column “Baby Boomers created mess” that was in the 11/29
Echo. I am a baby boomer, born in 1957. I have no problem with the core of Weinberg’s article, and I actually enjoyed most of it.
However, I felt a gaping hole in this piece was his neglecting to devote more attention to the Vietnam War and the fact 58,000 Americans are dead or missing from that “police action.”Roughly half of those casualties were baby boomers, seeing as the BB’s were those born from 1946 to 1964. The Vietnam War was easily the most unpopular war ever.
The U.S. lost the war, and when the soldiers came back many of them were called “baby killers” and spat upon.
Many of the soldiers that came home developed Post Delayed Stress Syndrome (PDSS), which resulted in a number of suicides, and there were many vets who also had a number of health issues from the defoliant “Agent Orange,” which caused everything from sterility to cancer.
Were those baby boomers selfish, Neil?
Didn’t they sacrifice a great deal?
I realize there are a couple of unpopular wars that are currently being fought, but the crucial difference is most Americans are standing behind these brave men and women that are overseas.
That wasn’t the case 40 years ago.
The BB’s also are the generation that has the most college graduates and have been productive for the majority of their lives. Compare that with so called “slackers” of the ‘90s. Many of them are still seeking out the path of least resistance.
There’s a lot of people from 18 to 80 that you should also blame, Neil, please don’t just dump everything on those that are ages 46-64.
Every election we’ve had, where tax cuts were an issue that would result in cutbacks in school systems and other important community concerns, we were out at the polls trying to make a difference.
I sincerely hope your generation is able to make a difference and fix everything, but it’s really easy to find fault in our track record when your generation doesn’t even really have a track record yet.
