There is a problem few in the mainstream media are willing to discuss: Fifty-and-sixty-somethings are out of control. Whether it's destroying the sanctity of marriage with multiple divorces and serial monogamy or saying something racist about their Bangladeshi neighbors or micro-managing their college-aged children's lives, boomers seem incapable of behaving like mature and responsible adults.
In fairness, it's not entirely their fault. Boomers are told culturally they're better than everyone else by marketers selling retirement condos and encouraging them to see that Viagra ad in the latest issue of Golf Magazine. Those lessons are reinforced by programs on Fox News, HLN, and CBS that portray non-boomers as weirdo others. All this messaging distorts their reality and leads them to believe they can act however they want, wherever they are, because they are God's own special snowflakes.
As we saw at last weekend's Woodward Dream Cruise, when boomers get rowdy, it's going to be a bad time for everyone else.
Macomb Daily: A Ferndale man, 50, on a bike became enraged with a crowd after he ran into a pedestrian and he used a racial slur when the black pedestrian tried to help him up, police said.
“He was ranting and raving at the crowd,” said Ferndale Police Lt. William Wilson. “He dropped his shorts, grabbed his penis and started yelling vulgarities at the crowd. A man emerged from the crowd and punched the suspect in the head, causing him to bleed. The assailant was gone by the time officers arrived.”
...
An Oakland Township man, 52, was naked and masturbating inside his Toyota parked near Woodward and Lewiston about 1 a.m. Sunday, police said.
Sadly, boomer leaders like Bill Clinton or George W. Bush or Mitt Romney almost never condemn the bad behavior of their age cohort. It's long past time spokesmen from the graying to set and demand their contemporaries take responsibility for their actions. The days of "everyone gets a draft deferment" are over. Boomers must wake up to that reality.
