What we have in common

It's easy for Millennials and Baby Boomers to accuse one another for the problems in the world today.  Boomers say Millennials are self absorbed, naive, disruptive, narcissistic.  Millennials in turn say the Boomers are selfish, self centered, and lack a great deal of understanding for their plight.

I could write, yet another article, on how the Boomer decisions harmed the Millennial generation.  I could write another article in a growing course on the wealth gap between Boomers and Millennials.  The lack of jobs, the destruction of unions, rising tuition costs and stagnant pay.  I'll have already already written plenty myself.

But after watching CNN's series "The Sixties", I've come to realize something staggering.  There are a lot more similarities between the Hippie generations of our parents, and the Occupy generation of the Millennials today.  Perhaps with a bit of comparison, we can see more eye-to-eye on what divides us, and perhaps come to a better understanding of our future.

The 60's is a generation that was steeped in tragedy.  Assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King.  Vietnam War in full swing.  A quagmire that was seeing increased disillusionment back home.  A political process that greatly ignored the plight of these individuals, even physically beating the would-be peaceful protesters both inside and outside the 1968 Democratic Convention.  And corporations that ignored the damage they were doing to the planet.  The fear of a Soviet nuclear attack was in the back of everyone's mind

Our generation too was steeped in tragedy.  On September 11th, we witnessed death on a grand scale right in our back yards.  A lifetime of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, not to mention the threat of war in Korea and in the China Sea.  A political process that was rigged from the beginning, and being just in time for the convention in Philadelphia.  Many of the delegates were treated just as inconsiderately, being drowned out by white noise, having their seats taken by scabs, or downright insulted for our positions.  And our fear, not just from Russia, but from ISIS as well.

While Hippies gathered in Woodstock or Haight-Ashbury, we gathered in Zuccotti park.  System of a Down, and Rage against the Machine is our Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead.  Bernie Sanders is our Robert Kennedy.

Boomers had their movements, Civil Rights, Feminism, Farm Workers of America, Communes, The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Experiment.  We too have our movements, such as Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Fairness Coalition, and Fight for 15.

So where is the disagreements?  It's easy to say that they just grew up.  The hippy movement was a complete bust.  Reality set in.  But did it?

What about programs that are designed to protect the planet.  The EPA, or Earth Day? Today, there is hardly a city that doesn't have its own recycling program.  We no longer put lead in our gas tanks.  There are a lot of restrictions on what chemicals can be used, or where it can be stored, or dumped.

What about women's rights?  Birth Control was once taboo.  Today, I do not know of very many women who do not use birth control.  The right to choose what happens to their body is not a question today.  In fact, our generation is building upon that, deciding what is acceptable behavior between men and women.

But we also know the fight is not over.

We today fight a new front in the world of civil rights.  Even though Jim Crowe laws are dead, and we even have our first black president, discrimination is not.  Lynchings have given way to police assassinations of our black youth.  Today, authoritarians are using Voter ID laws and gerrymandering to suppress votes, rather than tests, or threats of violence.  And with Segregation being illegal, financial segregation is still very much alive.

The Farm Workers of America have fought sucessfully for the right to unionize.  Today we stand in unity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe as they struggle to protect their homeland from corporate vandals.

It's hard to argue that the demonstrations of yesterday, did not impact the world today.  But it is also important that the struggle is still not over.  What we fight for today is not unlike the fight Boomers fought then.  Our non-violent tactics were what we learned from them.  Our chants have not changed in the last 50 years.

And while we have both struggled, we have also seen great advancements.  Your generation saw the first men land on the moon.  Today we make our mark on Mars, as well as Asteroids and Comets in deep space.  We have taken your invention of computers, and the internet, and created a world wide web, putting the entire world in our back pockets.

We have tried to learn from the mistakes of the past, we are determined to see through the hippy vision of world unity.  One of peace, love, sustainability.  One that is kind to our earth, and kind to each other.  No doubt we will make mistakes as well.  But that is all part of the process.