Show some respect, Millennials. The Gen Xers will save democracy for all
I was listening to an interview with city councilman Ritchie Torres, newly chosen Democratic candidate for the House from New York, and liking what I heard. That is, I realized every other sentence out of his mouth started with “our generation.”
I checked his bio, and sure enough, he was born in 1988. I have shoes older than him. Of course, he kept talking about his generation — he’s a Millennial. They can’t help themselves.
Fine, I get that the children are our future, but what is going to happen with the rest of us, those born before 1985? Are they going to put us on an ice floe and let us drift out to sea?
I am not really a Boomer, I’m too poor for that. In truth, was born in the butt crack between the Baby Boom and the bust of Generation X, so I self-identify as Gen X. I’m not a flower child or a “digital native,” so I guess that makes me a member of that lost generation.
We faced a shrinking horizon, the prospect of never retiring, or even living as well as our parents. But we fought through and launched our careers into the Reagan Recession. We saw the fall of the Berlin Wall, worked with the first “.com” startups and were already grownups when we got out first cellphones.
We did our best, worked hard and then we got cut loose in middle age because we were considered digital deadwood, roadkill of cyberspace despite all our reinventions. Even if we keep up our skills, we’re cut from any roster because we weren’t born in the 1990’s. We’re “overqualified.” We’re “too expensive.” Ageism is real.
I have nothing against the young, but what do they have against us? We are expected to fade away into invisibility, and just take the blame for everything that’s wrong, from climate change to the popularity of pumpkin spice.
Well, guess what? We’re not ready for that. It’s time we pointed to a few things around us and told the hipsters, like Obama said: “You didn’t build that.” You’re building on what we started.
So the hell with you Millennials, who keep thinking everything we did was useless crap. Sure, there was Vanilla Ice, grunge and some questionable fashion trends, but you wouldn’t be here today without our crap. Gen Xers have been working all these years, paying into government programs, taking care of aging parents and, yes, indulging children who, as the saying goes, were born on third base and think they’ve hit a triple.
If you want someone to blame for runaway capitalism, blame your Nana and Grandad, the OG yuppies who voted for Ronald Reagan and set us on this course. Trump is not an aberration, he’s just a mutation of the same rootstock. We’ve been fighting his kind for decades. And we did it all without cellphones or TikTok.
Do you think America woke up one day and decided gay rights were a good idea? Your non-binary, queer studies they/them/theirs types would be still in the closet if my PFLAG peer group of Gen Xers hadn’t stepped up when Reagan wouldn’t even name the AIDS plague. Remember that? No? Before your time? Ask Dr. Fauci, he was there.
Do you think #MeToo would have happened if we hadn’t protested that “We believe Anita Hill?” Would people be recording police brutality if someone hadn’t filmed Rodney King’s assault? Who do you think was fighting for universal healthcare when you were still getting potty-trained?
Billy Joel was wrong, we did start the fire. You’re just stoking it now.
Change takes time, something for which you don’t seem to have any appreciation. Just wait; when you’re our age, you will understand. We thought we were hot stuff too, with our Xeroxed ‘zines and our 1200-baud modems shrieking away as we merged into the Information Superhighway of the late 20th century. You will be us someday, don’t kid yourselves.
So OK, Boomers, the hell with you. You dined and dashed and left us to pay the bill, and your Social Security benefits. And the hell with you too, Millennials, who get mad at us because we won’t pay your check, and bitch that we take your jobs when we can’t get hired.
And, as we were speaking of fires, that rhetoric around the election of “let it all burn down, we’ll rebuild better” has got to stop. It’s easy to say that when you’re not the one who’s going to get smoke inhalation. No matter how much we may want to change things, we can’t let society turn into the worst episode of The Walking Dead and hope we can come out better on the other side.
So we will hold down the fort. In the 2018 mid-term elections, Gen X voted at a higher rate than any group but senior citizens, according to the Pew Research Center. And unlike the Boomers and the Silent Generation, all those 40– and 50-somethings are not going anywhere for a while.
We may not be jumping for joy about the choices in this election, but we’re adult enough to know you don’t always get exactly what you want. Meanwhile, there’s a head case in the White House who must be removed or there will be nothing left to rebuild.
But don’t worry, the deadwood Gen Xers have you covered. Stay home, don’t vote. Or vote third party. Vote for Kanye. Who cares? We’ve been carrying you all, anyway. We’ve got this.
But just remember: If you ever want to run things #LikeaBoss, better start voting and running like we do. And not just for “our generation.” For everyone.
