To the Millenials from a Gen Xer
The following was inspired by this article:
http://rall.com/2013/06/04/syndicated-column-the-new-generation-gap-gen-x-vs-gen-y
Dear Millennial:
The article I quoted is from Ted Rall, a self appointed voice of Gen X. He is an asshole at times, but at other times one of the stronger voices against the right, thus worth reading. However, despite the part where he begins remembering how we got smeared, he seems to go right on smearing you. Generations often wind up repeating the mistakes of their elders, and I write this to try and undo that.
He proceeds to make fun of your culture, digging in on things like steampunk. It's funny coming from someone that is a champion of punk rock. Punk was hated, misunderstood,considered low class, but yet, he worships it, and proceeds to make fun of you because you change and rediscover things like, oh, playing more than three chords or a different way of growing a beard or wearing an older cut of dress. He uses the word "boring" and even says he feels his generation is younger than yours.
Of course, he forgets that you were the first generation to grow up when the American dream had finally come down. We Gen Xers saw the initial fall, and it was bad, especially when many Boomers were calling us slackers. However, you knew the dream was dead, you did not do the equivalent of our Kurt Cobain, and shoot himself because the sex drugs rock and roll dream the baby boomers started turned out to be hollow. You found different dreams,different methods than the ones that failed, and moved on.
That is why YOU are the ones that made OWS, why you had solidarity with the Arab Spring. Of course, because you did not fulfill Rall's dreams, he mocks you. He wanted OWS to turn violent, for you to be the meat fodder for his dreams, never even asking what yours were. Then again, not only does he realize that violence ruins revolutions, but that the forces of evil were a lot better organized and funded than the same bastards the Boomers and Xers fought. The old gray men have learned their lessons, changed tactics, and frankly, bribed the MSM, which means they can get away with a lot more than Joe McCarthy ever could. Even on DU, you had people throw mud on OWS and you, which made the old gray men laugh.
Yes, you depend a lot on the internet, on the twitter and facebook, and yes, you will be the ones that need to rein those forces in before the NSA and Wallstreet ruin whatever potential they have. You supported Obama over Hillary (something many Boomers will never forgive you for, and will try to punish you for in 2016 when they try to plant Hillary on the throne.)
In short, no you are not boring, you are interesting, and the older people who slam you for living with your parents should compare not just how expensive college was for them, or what wages where for them, but acknowledge the fact that there is simply not much opportunity period. You have been given the short straw, yet you have done a lot with it, which means that you will be the ones tough and resourceful enough to make it in a future that your elders have squandered. Yes, you do act a bit older, and are quieter, which Rall hates, but maybe he can see that, unlike my Gen X, which kept whining about how those Boomers ruined everything, you are more about actions than emotions.
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My daughter somehow was BORN with her shit together. I had this conversation with her only yesterday - pointing out to her again how I just felt it in my bones that I never was going to have to worry about her too much. She's totally in command, and has been from the day she was born. My son - a different story, but as he approached adulthood (driven mostly by the reality of his increasingly happening band) he too had his shit THOROUGHLY together. Over and over from others including producers, promoters, radio people, industry people, the same words come out of their mouths about him - "he GETS it."
I felt like someone wandering in the wilderness, tilting at windmills, not really "GETTING it" for quite some time. Til late in my 20s - if even then.
Somehow I feel as though their generation set their rose-colored glasses down on the counter top a long time ago and, indeed, went out and started DOING shit. They have so much more of a sense of themselves and where they are - in the world, in their community, in time, in the whole generational thing. They're remarkable. I see it in many of their friends, too.
I feel like we Baby Boomers just screwed it all up. It's on OUR watch that the American Dream began its decline. It's OUR pollution and recklessness and that of our own elders that our Millennial sons and daughters have to clean up. And they know it. My kids grew up seeing my activism (such as it was - I certainly didn't move many mountains!!! 
) and they know. They have a remarkably clear view of the job ahead.
Could be why so many in their generation recognize what's wrong in our world and know how they're going to do away with that wrong. Could be why so many of them are trending progressive. Could be why so few of them vote republi-CON - to such an extent that the statisticians and political strategists and demographics-trackers are all acutely aware of it as a reality. Could be why you're apt to hear again and again how the kids just don't get why there's intolerance against gays and other colors of skin - they just don't get it. They grew up in a world where all those skin colors and non-conventional lifestyles and outside-the-cookie-cutter feelings and ways of thinking and behaviors were THE NORM. My kids grew up knowing lots of single heads of households, gays - among their friends, peers, and parents of same, mixed-race parents with mixed-race kids, heck - sufficient numbers of followers of Islam that were so commonplace that it just wasn't anything even worth noticing.
My kids were in Catholic school. My daughter's First Communion class (2nd grade) was so diverse that only ONE THIRD of them actually made their First Communion. Catholics in her class were a distinct minority! Sure wasn't that way in MY First Communion class. Before we moved, I believe EVERYONE in class was Catholic. But after we moved, it was almost the same - until 6th grade, when we discovered that our class had exactly ONE member of the Greek Orthodox church among us. Now, WE are in the minority! And know what? That's more than okay by me!!! Seems to me that's a good thing. The Catholic Church needs to dispossess itself of the notion that it owns the world. When in reality, it's just one of many, and NOT the proverbial spoiled child who assumes it's all about THEM. And hopefully, many of us in the Baby Boom generation have recognized that same thing by now, too.
How'd that old saying go?
"...And the children shall lead."
Rall wrote a very accurate description of Millenials and did so without rancor or boring attacks. He spoke positive when positives were natural, and he is still right about the 'old-fashionedness' of most Millenials. I know many - as friends, students, colleagues, clients, etc.
Generations do share much in common - stereotypes and all. I constantly hear attempts at wisdom and maturity that should come with age and experience from many who are just too young yet to have gained it. I am glad they are heading in that direction, and they will get there. But as Rall says, I often remind the Millenials in my life, be yourself and be the age you are. You are only in your twenty's once - make mistakes, take risks, stop being so trusting, and explore your freedom while you can.
As a fellow Generation X'er like Rall, I agree with his article and I personally think he shared it well.
One problem with writing about generational politics is that it requires sweeping generalizations. You can point to million exceptions. And of course there’s absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. These things simply are (if you believe, many many do not). Another is that you risk pissing people off…people you like.
To be clear, we Xers think you Millennials are awesome. We just wish you’d act your age.
Like, young.
but don't blame the kids. As a Boomer, the thought of my parents calling a teacher about anything was 
. But many parents today do this stuff, which is why their kids expect it.