May 22, 2026
Today Suzie-Q and I went out to the cemetery to visit my parents’ gravesite. We tidied up, replaced some old flowers with new, and then took a little quiet time. I thought about a legacy. Looking down at the final resting place for what is often referred to as the greatest generation I pondered how the legacy of my generation, the baby boomers, would measure up. I even pondered it on a personal level and what might the next generation think of me or us.
I suppose we could travel down the long trail of who did what and when, but I do not want to do that. I once participated in a seminar, the core of which was to impart that who you are depends on where you were when. Your life experiences define who you are and to a large part that also defines generations.
The people of my parent’s generation came up through the great depression. They learned the value of work especially the large percentage of Americans of the time without it, and understood the importance of providing for their families. They understood the importance of family. They understood the value of money driven by a time of less affluence. They were thrifty. The Second World War was their great challenge. Every generation has its detractors and profiteers, but for the most part Americans at home and at the war front made great sacrifices to defeat the enemy hell bent on world domination. At great cost, they won. They came home to a grateful nation and built an affluent America. It was a vision and determination from the people of that age that put a man on the moon. An American. It is safe to say they made America great. Churches were full on Sundays. No one claimed it offensive or intolerant to declare we were one nation under God. There was an audible national gasp when Clark Gable said “Frankly my dear. I don’t give a damn.”
They also started having babies, many of them. It was a baby boom. The birth of my generation.
Instead of a great depression my generation experienced relatively great affluence. Our big war was a cold one, the mission to block the expansion of communism. It was dotted with the hot ones of Korea and Vietnam, neither of which garnered the total national sacrifice of World War II. In Korea communist aggression was turned back, but the war ended in political settlement not military defeat of the enemy. Many from my generation balked at military service during the Vietnam era with protests and draft card burnings. The great generation had movie stars and the wealthy involved in the war effort. My generation had movie stars heading off to the land of our enemies to take photographs with them and make propaganda radio broadcasts directed to American Soldiers. Our wealthy were receiving multiple draft deferments or filling the bulging ranks of National Guard and Reserve units that largely never deployed to the combat zone unless they needed to build some credentials for future political endeavors. There was no big welcome home for our Vietnam War Veterans. Instead, they were blamed for the failures of politicians. Churches were much less filled on Sundays. We began rating movies based on the content of vulgarity and Mr. Gable’s big screen declaration would raise nary an eyebrow.
Where is my generation now? We are running our country. I am so proud. We are confronted by an enemy hell bent on world domination and we are unable to call him by his name. I suppose we produced the millennial generation, if I am up on my generational tag lines, fully indoctrinated with a progressive education, participation trophies and the need for safe spaces. A generation one would think based on current observations willing to totally embrace socialism because their indoctrination is completed and they missed the history lessons about the millions killed by it. Declaring we are one nation under God is just too intolerant and offensive for them to even contemplate. With vision and determination, the great achievement of my generation is going to be putting a man in a woman’s bathroom. Now that is a legacy a man can be proud of. Well maybe not just a man. I need a safe space.
©2016 J. D. Pendry All Rights Reserved
Cathy
chulai1968
Truth Prevailing
Publius Huldah
radioroger2015
revaustinmiles
Steve
Sad, but true. I do what I can to counteract the evil influence of the public school education indoctrination that all the kids in my family are being carpet bombed with, but it only goes so far.
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Where do we lay the blame for the situation our country is now? Is it we baby boomers? As much as I would like to say “no”, I think we have to say, “yes” to a great degree. Granted, we didn’t have the internet yet to help us research and discern in our early adulthood. Even though we knew there were evil, immoral people in our government, most of us had no way to know in detail what was going on within our country, much less at a global level.
Collectively, we boomers have let our parents down. They were the ones who sacrificed to make our childhoods pretty darn nice right after the end of WWII. As adults, we failed to monitor our elders and peers in government. We blindly trusted them to do the right things for our country while we were working and raising our own families and primarily ignorant of what was really going on. We let them vote in things for themselves we as citizens have no access to. We didn’t question all sorts of legislation we should have. We allowed members of our own generation to govern us, who were led to moral slaughter by evil ones such as Saul Alinsky, George Soros, etc., without holding them responsible until recently. We didn’t monitor what schools were teaching and we stopped going to church “every” Sunday. We didn’t hold our children to the same standards our parents expected of we boomers. We enjoyed the advancements of technology as much as our children and forgot to heed the warnings, some of what was in our “gut” and some which were starting to come from those first few individuals who were doing research and realizing the potential dangers. We simply were complacent.
In saying this, obviously I’m not applying this to all we boomers. Many have raised their families with same moral values as they were raised which have resulted in those whom we must have the hope will continue the fight we are now in the midst of. I did not have children, but have spent much time “observing” the raising of the children and their children of my family, friends and community.
We boomers know this upcoming election is the most important one of our lifetime if our Republic and Constitution is to survive. We have to continue to pray for Trump’s safety and the downfall of the global elite and the removal of all in our government who are their puppets. IMHO
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You’d have to go back to our g-grandparents who allowed Wilson to give us income tax and fed reserve, and even in the late 1800s the education system was being destroyed…since the Constitution was signed it’s been a steady decline by the evil one…and people too busy working to make a living to stop and realize what was happening.
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I agree with your post. I didn’t apply fault to our grandparents and great grandparents because most had few resources to know what was going on outside of their local area except for newspapers and the radio. I’m 59 years old and all of my grandparents were born between 1884 and 1887. Generations are interesting in that way. Some of us are late bloomers!
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