Boomer Bardo

Ageism. What an ugly word. And what does it mean? Some old geezer complaining that younger folks criticize and disrespect everything s/he worked a lifetime to accomplish?

Wait a minute – that’s me?!*$#

Ever find yourself in a situation (job interview or whatever) in which you very strongly suspect that Ageism is being applied towards you, but of course, you cannot prove it? How does our society view the over 40’s? And now that Baby Boomers will be retiring in vast numbers in the next few years – will we be perceived as ‘cool’? Or as just terribly old and outmoded?

To a large degree – that depends on Baby Boomers themselves and how much we let our opinions be known.

Baby Boomers have, over the years, taken on huge social causes such as pollution (the original Earth Day), crooked Presidents (I mis-spoke myself!), social injustice (integration and racial profiling), rock and roll and denim jeans for all - and more in a list too long to enumerate here. Boomers in general have the reputation for being sticklers on the ideals of fairness, ethical behavior, development of renewal energy resources and affordable health care and food/shelter.

That’s the ideal about Boomers. The reality? Boomers are too diverse a group to categorize in any particular way. But I think we can all agree on one thing: Ageism is not acceptable! And, we are STILL cool, thank you very much!

* It Can’t Happen Here by The Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa), “Freak Out” album (1966).