No Boomer Generation president (kind of sarcasm)

[Wicked Blue]

35. I'm a boomer

I was born in 1952, and I am sick and tired of the media and others blaming Boomers for everything that's wrong in this country.

Dammit, we tried to fix things!! We got efforts going on the environment, protested and helped force an end to the Vietnam War, opposed racial discrimination and started the wave of feminism that continues today. We boycotted and worked to help force the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Some of us chose low-paying careers in the hope of doing some good in the world, careers in social work, for example. I went into journalism - and at times could barely afford food or rent - because I thought I could highlight issues of significance. Such as local recycling efforts and community protests against dumping of toxic wastes (in NJ).

When I was in college, I couldn't get a credit card because I was female. I couldn't get a job driving a school bus because that was for men only. I couldn't get a job delivering prescriptions for a pharmacy because I was female and therefore couldn't do "heavy lifting." As if a bottle of pills weighed 50 pounds. I couldn't get a job at the post office because "heavy lifting."

I did manage to become the first female ice cream truck driver in NJ as far as I know.

When I was in high school we were told the only career choices for women were teaching, secretarial work and nursing. Or becoming a beautician, waitress or sales clerk. The guidance counselors wanted young women who qualified for college to apply to "teachers college" only.

When I first got into journalism, very few women worked as reporters, and they tried to shuffle us off to the "social" section of the papers. We pushed back.

If people want to blame us for problems that exist today, take a look at our parents' generation. They had the G.I. Bill, low mortgage rates and taxes, and were able to afford homes and support families on a single income.

It was Ronald Reagan who led the charge to raise college tuitions to levels that the middle class could no longer afford. It was his generation that cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, leading to the vast economic inequality we experience today. It was his generation that subtly retaliated against feminism by keeping wages so low that it began to take two incomes to afford a house and a family. And as a result, young people today have difficulty even affording rent, let alone a mortgage, and face astronomical costs for child care.

Please allocate some of the blame where it really belongs.