Boomer Manifesto – the Musical - If I Had A Hammer

1962

   If 1960 was The Musical Age of Reckoning for the 1946 boomers who turned 14, then 1962 was The Sexual Age of Reckoning as the 1946 boomers turned 16.  Entering high school, getting a driver’s license, going on car dates, parking and maybe ‘scoring’ were now possibilities within reach rather than dreams you shared with your friends. And the music of the times?  As if raging hormones weren’t enough of a push, the lyrics from some of the top hits of 1962 stopped short of saying, “Just Do It”:

Sheila, by Tommy Roe

Me and Sheila go for a ride
Oh-oh-oh-oh, I feel all funny inside

Playboy, the Marvelettes

Playboy get away from my door
I heard about the lovers you had before

She Cried, Jay and The Americans

Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of man
So big and so strong
Come a little bit closer

Many of the songs from 1962 were mostly about breaking up, making up, doing the twist or the Duke of Earl. But after weeding through all the love songs, the clear choice for the third song of our boomer manifesto was an easy one:

If I Had a Hammer, Peter, Paul and Mary

If I had a hammer

I'd hammer in the morning

I'd hammer in the evening

All over this land

I'd hammer out danger

I'd hammer out a warning

I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters

All over this land

   In 1962, John F. Kennedy used his President of the United States hammer and almost started a nuclear war. He was hammering on Russia and Cuba because a U-2 flight over Cuba verified Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.  The Beatles were hammering on drummer Pete Best as they replaced him with Ringo Starr. California hammered on Richard Nixon as he loses the governor’s race. 

   The hammer that Baby Boomers can yield is a symbolically huge one both individually and collectively due to our sheer numbers. Our voting power, our dollars and our voices are all hammers that we can use to improve our community and our country either by helping to eradicate social injustices or by promoting politicians and organizations that are like minded toward issues important to us.  According to Steve Gillon’s 2004 book, Boomer Nation: The Largest and Richest Generation Ever, Free Press, "Introduction", ISBN 0-7432-2947-9: Boomers often are associated with the civil rights movement, the feminist cause in the 1970s, gay rights, handicapped rights, and the right to privacy.  

   That was then.  This is now and we have new causes that we can support. Child prostitution, homelessness, illegal immigration, pollution, veterans and so on are all causes that we can ‘hitch a ride on’ by speaking out and sharing our beliefs with others, by contacting our representatives and demand that they support our agenda, by donating to charitable organizations that are aligned with supporting the causes we promote and by voting for the person that has the same or similar value system as we do. 

Each person must live their life as a model for others. - Rosa Parks

How are you going to use your hammer?

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Boomer Manifesto – the Musical - You Can Depend On Me

1961

   I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline finished #1 on the Top 100 Hits of 1961. A great song, that's for sure, but there is no way that song title is going to be part of our Boomer Manifesto.  We cannot fall to pieces! We need to be whole.  For ourselves, our families and our generation. Particularly, our families. According to a Pew Research study The Return of the Multi-Generational Family Household "The multi-generational American family household is staging a comeback..." and (Boomers)"...offers its elderly parents about 50% more grown children with whom they can share a household if and when their life circumstances (such as widowhood, declining health or poverty) take them in that direction."  

   Social networking sites such as Facebook, Eons.com and TBD.com can attribute a lot of their growth due to the influx of Baby Boomers that want to use such sites to connect or reconnect with peers that are from the same generation, have similar issues (health, financial, spiritual), concerns and experiences.  We go on Facebook and reach out to our 'friends' when we are in need of support.  We believe that if we post our worries on Facebook, we can depend on our friends, some we haven't seen since high school, to lift our spirit, fill a void or 'be there' by offering up encouraging words, verses and offers of prayer. 

   That is why I selected You Can Depend On Me by Brenda Lee from 1961 to fill the second position of our manifesto.

If you ever, ah, if you ever need a friend

I'll be yours right by your side ah until the end

and

I wish you success

And loads of happiness

Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does.  ~William James

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Boomer Manifesto – the Musical - Let's Think About Livin'

1960
The first baby boomers turned 14 in 1960 and were getting their groove on to songs from the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, Chubby Check, Roy Orbison and Connie Francis.  In 1960, the use of birth control pills and Hugh Hefner opening the first of his Playboy Clubs in Chicago were at the fore front of the sexual revolution.  The US sent the first troops to Vietnam. John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were elected President and Vice-President respectively, and Bedrock’s first family, The "Flintstones", made their television debut. Cathy’s Clown by the Everly Brothers finished in the no.1 spot on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 chart.  Here is the link to my music source: http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1960.htm

The song from 1960 that I selected for our Boomer Manifesto – the Musical is:
Let's Think About Livin' by Bob Luman

Let's think about living
Let's think about loving
Let's think about the whoopin'
and hoppin' and boppin'
and the lovie, lovie dovin'
Let's forget about the whinin' and the cryin'
And the shooting and the dying
And the fellow with a switchblade knife
Let's think about living
Let's think about life

Corny lyrics? Yeah they are corny, that’s for sure.  But the title of the song is appropriate as the first entry of our manifesto, our “declaration of principles and intentions as we go forward.”  Let’s think about livin’! We sleep walk through most of our day.  We don’t appreciate the little things in life. Stop and smell the roses? Who has time! Do you focus too much on the future and not enough on the now?  Do you find yourself wishing your life away planning how you are really going to enjoy life on your next vacation, the following weekend or when you retire? That isn’t living. That’s planning.  Remember: Learn from the past; Live for today; Plan for tomorrow.  Now get out there and work in some more daily lovie, lovie dovin and less whinin’ and cryin’.

Every man dies. Not every man really lives. William Wallace 

oldrockerdude's Store at Zazzle

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Introduction to the Baby Boomers Manifesto – the Musical

Baby Boomers Manifesto – the Musical

   From what I recall, The Musical Age of Reckoning for me began around the time I entered my teen years.  I was born in 1954 so around 1967-8 at the young and impressionable age of 13 or so, I can remember spending many summer nights hanging with my friends, listening to ‘acid rock’ on a buddy’s boom box for hours.  Songs like Light My Fire (Doors), Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf) and White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane) all had a hypno-psychedelic ‘feel’ to them. The message of the lyrics were discussed at great lengths, most of which we never could reach agreement on except to say they were ‘so cool and deep.’  See for yourself:

The time to hesitate is through

No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre

or

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all

  Eventually me and my buddies, all of like age and social stratum evolved into hippies, replete with long hair, ripped jeans, army coats, black light posters and ‘down with the Establishment” mindsets.

  Music was, and still is, a very important part of my life. Quite often, memories buried deep within the recesses of my mind are floated to the surface of my consciousness because of a song. Melancholy, happiness and spirituality can be heightened or enlightened by a song.  The power of music can be experienced through your emotional connection to a song.  To me, music is important because of the impact it can have on your state of mind.

    I know my family and friends all love music as well. My contemporaries, most of whom I’ve reconnected with on Facebook, occasionally post links to concerts and ask about certain songs from ‘back in the day’. The love of and the connection to music is universal.

   But enough of the serious side of music. I thought it might be fun to go through the top songs of 1960 through 1978 and see if I can extract a song title from each year to create the Baby Boomers Manifesto – the Musical. Baby Boomers were born between 1946 – 1964. I added 14 years (Musical Age of Reckoning ) to the boomer birth years and that is how I ended up with selecting songs from 1960 through 1978. Each new post will have a song title and why I selected that song to be part of the manifesto.  When I am finished, Boomers will have 20 song titles (I'll add a bonus song to round it all out) that I think we can use to "publicly declare as our intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives". In other words, our manifesto.

  I hope you enjoy it and have fun.  Please feel free to express your opinion of the song selection.  Got a better selection?  Comment to the post and let me know.  We’ll make this a joint project!

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Boomers: Is oatmeal our fountain of youth?

Check this out:

http://tinyurl.com/33ufkzx
Oatmeal outranks almost every other breakfast cereal and most whole-grain breakfast products. Oatmeal is also regarded as a super food when it comes to supporting digestive health.

http://tinyurl.com/2v456er
Oatmeal is rich in soluble fiber which reduces LDL (bad cholesterol).

http://tinyurl.com/2ftm9zq
Each year, about 570,000 Americans die of cancer; fully one-third of these deaths are linked to poor diet, physical inactivity, and carrying too much weight. One recommendation: add oatmeal to your diet.

http://tinyurl.com/27su9kp
100 Candles on Her Next Cake: Her usual breakfast: orange juice, oatmeal, a banana and black coffee.

Why am I bringing up oatmeal? Because two oatmeal ‘events’ happened to me this year and I think when something as inane as oatmeal comes into your life in one year, you need to sit up and take notice.

I’ll begin with the second oatmeal event of the year. Our four year old granddaughter spent the weekend with me and my wife. We sat down to breakfast Sunday morning with our granddaughter who started poking and picking her way through a small plate of cut up waffles coated with cinnamon sugar and butter. Me and my wife had our usual; oatmeal. Our granddaughter looked over at my wife’s bowl and asked "Why do you eat  oatmeal?" My wife told her it is because we are getting older and we eat oatmeal because our doctor told us too. Upon hearing that, she looked up from her plate and asked, “If you eat oatmeal, will it make you younger?”  Oh how we wish!

The first oatmeal event occurred in March of this year.  I was in Las Vegas with a fellow boomer. We’ve been to Vegas 5 times together and until this year, we ate and drank as most people do when they travel to Sin City. Breakfast always consisted of the ham and eggs special which included a slice of ham the size of your plate, hash browns, toast, bacon or sausage, eggs, coffee and an occasional Bloody Mary. Or maybe we’d venture over to The Original Pancake House for the signature Apple Pancake breakfast, coffee with a side of bacon.

These times they are a changin’
So what did we do different this year. Well for starters, on our last day, we could easily recall exactly the number of alcoholic drinks we consumed over the four days we spent in Vegas. And our breakfast?
Oatmeal. Each and every morning. With coffee and no Bloody Marys.  We split a bagel and ordered sides of fruit. On the very last morning, my buddy decided we deserved a treat for being so health conscious the whole trip. He called the waitress over and ordered a side of turkey breakfast sausage for us to split.  Delicious.  

Ahh, the aging of the Boomer is best put into perspective by the following quote:
"Once we sowed wild oats, now we cook them in the microwave."  - Anonymous

Oatmeal might not be our fountain of youth, but it might just help us to live longer.

Boomers: Health Care Reform and You

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.  Mark Twain

I think the health care reformers skewed the above quote a little bit when they were drafting health care reform. Perhaps they see it as follows:

The only way to keep your health care is to pay more in premiums, drink the 'kool aid' we serve you and do what you'd rather not.

 

You can’t ignore it.  You can’t sweep it under the rug.  It is the 600 pound gorilla and it’s chasing after you.  It’s Health Care Reform.  Maybe you aren’t affected at the moment, but you will be soon enough. Whether it’s through higher premiums, higher co-pays or even having your health care coverage dropped by your employer, you will be touched by this quagmire.

Look at the headlines.

Health Care Reform Blamed for Huge Hike in Premiums

Sullivan responded to Blumenthal saying the new rates included "very rich benefits" mandated by federal law.

Health Insurance: Coverage Expands For Children, Young Adults; Not Necessarily For Retirees

Thanks to a little-noticed clause in a 1996 law, retiree-only health plans are exempt from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that went into effect last month."

30 Companies, Other Groups Escape New Health Care Rule for Now

The federal government has granted 30 companies and organizations one-year waivers to exempt them from one of the newly-implemented health care reforms.

Obama and health care: Waivers for objecting companies

The latest issue: Waivers granted to big companies who suggested they might drop coverage for their employees rather than comply with new government demands.

Federal Judge OKs States' Challenge to Health Care Reform, or 'Obamacare'

A victory for the states opposed to the health care reform legislation played out this Thursday. Federal Judge Roger Vinson of a U.S. District Court in Florida allowed a lawsuit brought by 20 states to proceed.

For those of you who are retired and are under your former company’s health care insurance and want to add your children 26 years of age down to 19 on to your policy, you could be out of luck. The new health care reform bill allowed big business to weigh in with complaints that “Employers say they might drop retiree coverage altogether if Congress were to force them to extend dependent coverage…”  The current bill passed, granting big business their wish to exclude their retirees from adding their adult children onto their current health care insurance.

If you believe this is just plain wrong and want to make your opinion know, please visit:

http://capwiz.com/abtr/issues/alert/?alertid=18506501 , fill out the information and send a message to President Obama and Washington that says Boomer Retirees should not be shut out just because we are retired.

Boomers: We Can't Change The World But We Can Change The U.S.

Graham Nash (just missed being a Boomer by a few years) wrote Chicago (We Can Change The World). The ‘protest song’ is about people of his generation not standing up for the Chicago 7

Changing the world might not be an achievable goal, but what if we focused on changing the U.S.? What if we started small. Break down the changing of America into manageable bites. What if we focused on getting out and voting this November.  Our voting numbers are our political strength. 

According to a Pew Research Report How Americans View Government
 (http://people-press.org/report/95/) completed back in 1998, 40% of the respondents felt that:
Political Leadership/Political System:
1.    Politicians are dishonest/crooks
2.    Only out for themselves/For own personal gain
3.    Representatives say one thing but do another
4.    Too partisan
5.    Scandals
was the main complaint about our government.

So what, if anything, has changed in the public’s mindset of how we view government since 1998? In my opinion, not a single thing. Maybe the percentages are not exactly the same, but I would venture a guess that the Political Leadership/Political System is still at the top of the list of negative views of our government.

And why shouldn’t it be? Forget about the negative ads many of the candidates run to attack their opponent.  Those are usually sound bites with kernels of truth thrown in to make the negativity stick.  The nightly news, web searches, radio broadcasts and blogs are replete with the full story about our representatives and their follies:
•    Taking bribes –Rep. Randy Cunnungham, Rep. James Traficant, Jr., Monica Conyers
•    Taking credit for successes they originally were not in favor of supporting.  Sen. Corker of Tennessee wants credit for what he opposed - support of the *American automotive industry. 
http://tinyurl.com/2ey3w3z
•    Placing incorrect blame on ‘the other’ party for things gone wrong http://tinyurl.com/2atu8j7
•    Attaching pork/special earmarks into specific bills http://tinyurl.com/yd6rmrq
•    Out and out lie (just Google “Who lied in the Senate?)

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.  ~H.L. Mencken, 1956

So where do we Boomers go from here? First become educated about your candidates. Watch the debates. Read the editorials in your local paper. Read the candidate’s literature and visit their websites. Skim the web.

Then go to the polls!

A poll recently released (full story: http://tinyurl.com/23tt6t7) said that about 2/3 of November’s voters will be 50 and over. That’s us, people.  We will be the largest bloc of voters based on percentage and numbers.  We cannot be ignored.

* Full disclosure: I am a retired, non-union salaried auto worker.  I believe that I and thousands of other auto workers benefited from the aid our companies received from our Federal government.

Pushing back on the Boomer attack to help reduce the national debt

In yesterdays post, http://tinyurl.com/2db7j7m,  I talked about an article where the author and a contributing author believes we should use our “immense” resources to help pay down the national debt through a Federal Estate Tax, increased taxes and even through donations to some Federal debt relief fund.

If we are the largest demographic group in the U.S. then haven’t we been contributing to the economy and national debt reduction already? And won’t we continue to be a player/payer in the years to come?
 
Since we are the largest demographic group we can assume that we’ve contributed the most toward:
1.    Federal personal income tax
2.    State & local income taxes
3.    Sales tax
4.    Social security & Medicaid
5.    Property tax
6.    Fuel/gasoline tax
7.    Toll Bridge/Tunnel taxes
8.    Vehicle License Registration tax
9.    IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
10.    Other (Includes estate tax, fees, licenses, inflation losses, inheritance, deficit allowance, gift,etc.)

Contribute to pay down the National Debt or help our Boomerang Kids.
According to a November 2009 Pew Research Center (http://tinyurl.com/yk8pvpb)  “13% of parents with grown children say one of their adult sons or daughters has moved back home in the past year.”  Of course, this number is expected to rise as the economy continues to tank.

Contribute to pay down the National Debt or help our aging parents.
From a USA Today article (http://tinyurl.com/2eaj38p) “Forty-one percent of baby boomers who have a living parent are helping care for them — with personal aid, financial help or both, according to a USA TODAY/ABC News/Gallup Poll of 689 baby boomers. Of the 59% who aren't helping now, nearly half worry about their ability to do so in the future.

Contribute to pay down the National Debt or help your grandkids. 
HelloBoomer.com (http://tinyurl.com/23s86zg ) reports that according to the US Census Bureau more than six million children (which is, about one in 12 of all children) are being raised by relatives other than their parents. Of that number about 3/4 are being cared for by grandparents.

Need more?
According to a survey by Grandparents.com made available to AARP  (http://tinyurl.com/2fr4ghw)
•    70 percent gave cash for day-to-day expenses.
•    40 percent helped with mortgage or rent payments.
•    24 percent provided money for health care.
•    23 percent helped pay for day care costs.
•    21 percent provided funds for education.

Sally Hurme, a financial expert at AARP says, “If they’re (Boomer grandparents) tapping into their retirement savings to help their children, then they’re shrinking the amount of resources they’re going to have for the rest of their lives.” 

If we are helping our kids and parents financially, who can we turn to for help if the time comes?

Since “our” recession began, our average household wealth continues to decline, health care costs continue to rise, we are losing our homes, our jobs and our promised retirement benefits. 

So excuse me if I don't sound enamored with the idea of giving more money to the government . 

I think Arthur Godfrey said it best:  “I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money. “

Boomers, what do we want? What do we expect? What is expected of us?

78 million of us were born between 1946 and 1964. We make up approximately 29% of the population. We have tens of trillions of dollars of wealth available to us.

So what do the numbers mean to us? Does it matter to you that we are the largest demographic group in the U.S.? Do you feel power in numbers?

As Baby Boomer Sally Brown exclaims in the 1965 classic A Charlie Brown Christmas, "All I want is what I... I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share". And who doesn't? But what is our fair share that Sally is talking about? Have we contributed enough to the universe and now we are owed our fair share? Share with us your vision of fair share.

Are you aware that we are 'under attack' to help reduce the national debt that arguably our parents' generation created? Bruce Bartlett stated in a response to a debate concerning what baby boomers owe their country the following: "...much of the debt was really left to us (boomers) by entitlement programs that have benefited the so-called Greatest Generation (our parents) and also ..."the Greatest Generation paid almost nothing in terms of payroll taxes and got benefits that were vastly greater than their contributions". Mr. Bartlett goes on to say "... some significant portion of the wealth they (boomers) will leave at death doesn't really belong to them or even their own children, but in some way to society and, yes, even the government."
Do you agree or disagree?  Full article can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/36kqd76 


Let's use this blog site to discuss and share our fears, hopes, dreams and thoughts about Our Generation: Where we were - where we are - where we are heading.