bigdog wrote:I read the article carefully, with the eye of someone who is only 6 years younger than Joe Biden. When I came to the part about the "Woke" generation, it reminded me of some of the comments Bill Maher made on his show last night. He said the "woke" generation, quite frankly, has begun to piss him off. I feel exactly the same.
I'm a little younger than you; I'll be 69 next month. I'm not upset at all about #metoo. I don't know many women who HAVEN'T had an unwanted sexual advance (or worse). I lost a job in the early '70's because my boss wanted to sleep with me. Hell, he had daughters almost my age.
I like the fact that Biden can still look on Republicans as humans and can be friends with them, because I have friends that are Republicans who I like very much, but I have to completely avoid all discussions of politics while I'm around them. It is not necessary to call out people for everything they believe that you don't agree with.
I have zero Republican friends. If you're a Trump supporter, we have nothing in common. That includes some of my close family members and people I've known for a long time.
Hugging is one of those issues that my generation embraces-I'm not crazy about it, but I've put up with it for years because I'm a woman and I'm Southern and I would NEVER insult nor push anyone away over a simple hug. I don't truly mind hands on the back of my shoulders either, because I grew up in a part of the country where men had protective impulses towards women and I STILL do not hate them for that. I think it's nice. Apparently, the Woke young women in this country resent males opening doors for them or trying to be gentlemen in any way, and I think it's gone way too far in the other direction. Me Too has gone WAY past its original intent and if I were a man, I would be afraid to even speak to a woman anymore for fear that she might be offended. It's outrageous. Sexual assault is a real event and a terrible thing. Being touched in the middle of the back and claiming it offended you is being (as Maher likes to call Donald Trump) a whiney little bitch. If women want to be taken seriously, they have to stop acting like poor little girls who can't get over a man's hand touching their back, or even their hair, 10 years ago. They have to learn to say "no" when something bothers them in the moment instead of crying to the news media about it years later. Because yeah, that's being a whiney little bitch. And excuse me if I don't really believe they were all that offended to begin with or they'd have said it earlier.
There's hugging...and then there's inappropriate hugging. I hug my friends of both sexes, unless they don't want a hug, in which case I back off. And the word NO is one with which I'm well acquainted.
I did not like Biden's vote on the Bankruptcy bill. It surprised me that he voted that way, but then saw him on a talk show later, and he explained that his state was the number one or number two state in America that relied o the Banking industry. He said there were times when he had to make a decision between what his constituents wanted him to do and what his conscience told him. He admitted that, on this vote, he felt he had to represent the people who sent him there. So, at least I know why he did it.
And there's where I (as a former banker) have a problem with Biden. He should have voted his conscience...period.
Biden is going to be the candidate, I'm pretty sure of that, unless the young people talk themselves out of going out to vote again. I hate their expectation of purity in all their beliefs and their willingness to sacrifice the good in a vain hope of getting the perfect.
I'm hoping he's NOT the candidate...even though I liked him as veep. And I don't expect perfection from a candidate (because no one is perfect). I also don't believe the younger generations expect perfection. I think they'd just like someone who's not a criminal.
Also, I'm kind of like Biden in the "Give me a Break" category. The kids today never went through what the older generation did. Their military is VOLUNTARY, ours was not. 50000 Americans died in Vietnam, no comparison to Iraq or Afghanistan, We went through Selma and police beating African Americans with clubs and killing freedom riders. This generation has to carry placards and go to marches. We went through the only moment in World History , the Cuban Missile Crisis, when it was very possible that the world as we knew it could be destroyed in a matter of hours or days. No other American generation has ever gone through that kind of fear. 911 did not compare. Yeah kids, give us a break and don't throw away those votes that the old people made sure you still have.Not like you did the last election.
Now, THAT sounds like whining. What about our parents' generation, or their parents, for that matter? WWI and WWII were not a picnic in the park, for God's sake. Yes, we went through hell; that doesn't mean the current generation is not...it's just a different kind of hell. And I also had a few college friends back when who had returned from Vietnam; others who were being called to go...and many, many local friends who are/were vets, including my husband, who has a partial Agent Orange disability, which he finally received in 2014, after I contacted a social worker at the VA. (I think they only began giving disability for AO in 2010.) He went for years without applying for medical at the VA, until he had a heart attack in 2008. I think he didn't want to think of himself as disabled.
One other thing...I happen to agree with Sal. There are members of our generation who (as we used to say) aren't worth the paper they're printed on, but many of these are people I didn't like in junior high and high school...entitled little SOB's. George W Bush comes to mind. And, of course the orange menace.
Home
