No, Jonathan Alter, the baby boomers did more than

[question everything]

"raising its kids, and not much else."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/107583

The baby boomers and, yes, we both are talking about the older ones, including the Clintons and Bush were the first to shutter artificial barriers and stereotypes. They (us) refused to accept blind authority just because someone was in a position of authority. They (us) refused to accept the assigned places at the bottom rung for women and minority. The freedom that many today take for granted to live as one chooses started with the oldest baby boomers shattering these barriers.

And, what do you know? We were inspired by Sputnik and went to study science in droves. We started biotech and high tech industries and were leaders in advances in science and technology. Advances that, no doubt, you enjoy. Advances in medical research that keep you, a cancer survivor healthy and alive.

But how bitter you are, being born in 1957 and "missing" on all the excitement.

"But those boomers born after 1955, now mostly in their 40s, missed Woodstock (unless a few snuck in as 14-year-olds). Our coming-of-age decade was the 1970s, not the 1960s. Our presidents were Carter and Reagan, not JFK, LBJ and Nixon. Our calling card was irony, not rebellion." "Despite our size (the peak of the baby boom was 1957, the year I was born), we spent years feeling like generational stepchildren. It was as if we arrived late at the '60s party, after everything turned bitter."

You hate the older boomers so much that you have to prove that we did not even have our own icons

"Many quintessential boomer figures like Jimi Hendrix (born 1942) and Abbie Hoffman (born 1936) weren't actually in the demographic at all."

Not a word about Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Elton John, Tom Petty, Don Henley and others.

At least this explains why you hate Clinton so much and adore Obama.

And thank you for admitting that the Clintons and Bush are "Velcro" while Obama is "Teflon."

"I've often wondered why some big-time politicians are Velcro while others, like Ronald Reagan, wear coats of Teflon. One explanation may lie in the struggles of the 1960s. Those who grew up then, from the Clintons and Al Gore to Newt Gingrich and Bush, are almost all Velcro. Everything sticks to them. Anyone who pre-dates or post-dates those polarizing cultural arguments has a decent shot at acquiring some Teflon." "Obama's Teflon comes not just from his race, which forces his critics to risk charges of racism when they attack him, but from his un-'60s (as opposed to anti-'60s) profile."

You dump all of us, early boomers as "polarizing." But to break down old walls one cannot play nice, trying to go along. This is what the guarding of the old system want.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. What's with what's left of that nitwit's hair?

It used to be a comb over now it's Eddie Munster.

[Jane Austin]

4. He had cancer and it fell out.

Next question?

[MADem]

2. It's in fashion this year to shit on the Gray Haired Ones.

I know a lot of young (relatively) people who were born after 1955, and they aren't bitter like this asshole.

But then, they have LIVES.

[enlightenment]

3. I was born in 1957 and I've never blamed older boomers

for anything . . . and I don't agree with much of anything Alter has said here.

He's broad brushing and that sucks - please don't do the same thing to the rest of us!

[question everything]

6. Thank you. It is not our fault that we were born

earlier. But we were led to believe that the sky was the limit, that we could do whatever we set our mind to do. And we tried and sometimes even succeeded.

[enlightenment]

7. Oh. You're welcome.

I find it so very strange that we are suddenly back to the "don't trust anyone over 30" bit - I'm not sure I like being on the receiving end!

I was also raised to believe that I could accomplish anything I wanted to accomplish; it's funny that it wasn't until recently that I've felt like I couldn't.

Sometimes the days seem very, very long.

[sheelz]

18. .

[kentuck]

5. What's the big deal if women advanced more in our generation...?

than in the previous 2000 years? Is that something we should be ashamed of? So what if we tried to correct the racism and prejudices within our society and that today both a woman and a black man can run for President of the United States? Is that nothing? Well, excuse me.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

9. Many of the people that voted in the legislation that was needed

to eliminate racism and prejudice was by folks born long before the older Boomers.

Older Boomers are always willing to take credit for everything.

Self-referential until the end,huh?

[kentuck]

10. Dragged screaming and kicking with MLK's speech...

Free at last! blowing their wigs off. Yes, we will give them credit. Just as LBJ understood that the South would be lost for generations with the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

[madrchsod]

8. that guy is a twit

maybe he was the guy that never quite fit in any group...

[robbedvoter]

11. "teflon" and "velcro"" do not occur naturally. They are MSM manipulations

on order from their owners. God knows, both Bush the Smarter and the Dumber were endowed with all the teflon in the world - until their own backers eventually dismissed them.
To me, the 60's were about the civil rights and anti-war struggles. The un-60's are denying the meaning of those causes in my book.

[splat]

12. Revolution still on

[AX10]

13. Alter is an ass.

He has always hated the Clintons.
It is quite possible that he feels at home with Obama because of the generational differences.
The events of the 1960's are what allowed a female and a black to run for the Presidency today.
Alter is to blind and willfully ignorant to see that.

[Pab Sungenis]

14. If you were born after 1955, you aren't properly a Boomer.

You're one of the Slip Kids, stuck in generation W. The real Boomers were 1946-1955. Generation X started in 1966, the children of the boomers. Your kids are, usually, filling up Generation Y.

You're stuck there in the middle. Sorry, but you aren't Boomers culturally or chronologically.

[kineneb]

15. 1958- so I'm not a "boomer"?

I remember the heroes of the 1960... Still like surf music...Don't think the 70's were that bad- we had Jethro Tull and The Eagles (Hotel California)...got to watch the Watergate hearings, and Nixon formally resigned on my 16th birthday.

Yes, we missed the protests and the Summer of Love, sigh. But we got to hear the music and grew up with the culture. I think the dividing point is those who remember JFK even though they were young, and those who were too young to remember.

[question everything]

17. Which really shows how individual this is

Many have tried to divide and dissect the 1946-1964 people and each can view his/her own life in a different prism.

That Jonathan Alter is a bitter man, is one thing; that he gets to write a column and a regular on Olbermann (and, perhaps, on other programs) with such a baggage is really bad.

[Demagitator]

16. The apocalyptic age

After Kennedy was shot, America entered the apocalyptic age. Liberal Democracy died, as did culture, art, and a real old time religion died , and the "great beast" was unmasked in Bush v. Gore, and now religious -- fanatics -- rule the world.