Okay Boomers, we hear you. You're relevant. You're here. There's nothing we can do about it. For my child's sake, I hope that I grow fabulously old with a little more grace and that I show more respect for new ideas than many of you boomers have shown mine.
Here's the thing: I'm actually willing to hear your perspective, IF you're willing to hear mine. I'll tell you where I'm coming from, my frustrations, my hurdles - you listen, then you tell me what's ailing you. Maybe, we can find some common ground here instead of a string of comments two miles long "They're so immature!" "They're Old and Stupid!"
I am a twenty-nine year old mother of one. When I worry about the cost of healthcare, it's a mostly selfish endeavor. Do you know how much it costs for a toddler check-up these days? A fifteen minute visit with immunizations is over $200 dollars. That's two weeks' worth of food - which at this point is organic everything because I am scared to death that the chemicals and hormones I ate as a kid are going to give me cancer in my 30's or 40s' instead of the tumor my mother got at fifty.
My husband and I would like to have another child. Sure, it would be nice for our daughter to have a sibling to play with, but we're mostly hoping that after we die, she'll have someone in this world to team up with in the likely event of massive plague induced die-offs, rising coastal water and farmland turned to scorched desert from global warming. Happy thoughts for the future, right?
Setting the apocalypse aside for the moment, we have to educate her. In our lovely State of Oregon, we have a choice between crossing our fingers and hoping for the best in public school or maybe moving to a different state. Even if she goes to PUBLIC kindergarten here, we may have to pay $300/month to get a full day of kindergarten (only the first 2.5 hours are free. Most of the schools in decent neighborhoods charge.) Although a legal opinion declared such a pay-to-play scheme to be illegal, the state legislature will probably pass a law to make it legal and appease their base (affluent voters), instead of doing the right thing and paying for a full-day of kindergarten for every kid. Should be fun figuring out how to save and pay for college too, considering we've got $40,000 in college loans ourselves.
When it comes to presidential politics, I'm in the anyone-who-can-beat-the Republicans-and-I-happen-to-think-Obama-can camp. I love that John Edwards is so angry about my problems. I love that Barack Obama is so hopeful he can fix them. I like Hillary Clinton a little better when she's talking about what she wants to do, not reminding me of what Bill Clinton did. I don't really need help with that.
When I was in college, I voted for Bill Clinton. I also woke up every day to a new headline about presidential blow-jobs, blue dresses and buxom interns. I blame those headlines for 8 years of Republican rule. I blame Bill Clinton for not keeping it in his pants. I don't blame Hillary for staying with him - because although I probably wouldn't have done the same thing, I'm not her.
At my first job, and my second, I was sexually harassed. I believe that MEN are the ones who need to change their behavior and respect our bodies and our brains and women need to stop being afraid of being women. I wish that instead of declining to be photographed for Vogue out of a fear of seeming too feminine, Hillary just presented her true self, whatever that is, without triangulating what the effect would be.
Demonstrating humanity and authenticity is important to me because I think a presidential candidate needs those qualities to recognize the depth of human suffering in this country and feel the urgency with which that suffering needs to be addressed.
Luckily, I'm in a field somewhat insulated from recession - for now. Not so for my young friends and neighbors who have been struggling during the "good times" and who with four-year degrees have to prostrate themselves in coffee shops and minimum-wage retail to make ends meet while they look for that great entry level gig that may, eventually, someday pay enough for them to move out of a crappy apartment and maybe fix their cavities.
I'm planning on taking care of my parents (boomers) when they get too old to live by themselves, because I've seen the inside of many a nursing home, and no relative of mine is going to pay thousands of dollars a month to not have their bodies washed or their teeth brushed.
So you see boomers, when I tell you that change in our country can't come fast enough, it's not because I'm an impatient brat - it's because families like mine are hurting, right now, all the time, every second of every day. And the same old song, the same old thinking that hasn't helped before, doesn't feel like it's going to help now.
Here's to an open mind, like the one you had in the sixties! (and the one I know that is still in there somewhere)
Love,
radioactivepickle
p.s. thanks for listening.