The Portal to Boomeranger World

On the Road Again Pt 2--Boomer Nostalgia on the Radio

Boomer nostalgia is all over Broadway:   Boomer Broadway
in renewed Beatlemania:   Beatlemania

in Collectibles:
USA Today,  Boomer Auctions

and what is filling the airways is Boomer Oldies radio shows playing 60s, 70s and 80s tunes.

Today cruising west on Rt 80/90 to Toledo where we will turn north to Michigan. We are passing in and out of radio range and changing the stations as we go along. Town after town has a 60s, 70s, 80s station.

We pass the turn off to Kent State while listening to The Animals singing their rendition of "House of the Rising Sun"--which was the ruin of many a young man... 

Who were the National Guard members, probably not too much older than the students they gunned down? Were they ruined by their actions? Kent State

Gordon Lightfoot is coming to Cleveland and Roseanne will be playing Vegas soon...all this is looking back is fun and a distration from engaging in the more difficult tasks ahead  posed by the coming elections...Elections- Huff Post

Ingrid Betancourt, Three Americans and Eleven Other Columbian Hostages Rescued: Now That Is a 4th of July to Celebrate

Ingrid Betancourt, 46, former Columbian presidential candidate, was rescued two days ago in a bloodless and cunning Columbian government operation along with eleven others (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080704/ts_afp/colombiarebelshostages). Betancourt, is the mother of two who were 13 and 16 when she was captured in 2002 just ten days after meeting with FARC leaders and others. At that meeting she had called for no more kidnappings and for a peaceful, negotiated settlement. That was 6 years ago. She had reportedly tried escaping three times and was a source of strength and morale for other hostages held chained by the neck sometimes for years.

Now that is the kind of heartful courage and leadership we can all admire. But here we are taking popularity polls as to how much we "like" the potential First Ladies Obama and McCain and arguing over whether they are too strong and how they dress. Gag me with a spoon!  www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/07/02/2008-07-02_first_wives_likability_polls_end_up_pole-2.html. We have come a long way, I hope, in our attitudes and practicises about race, but when it comes to leadership, power and women, baby, the country has a long was to go.

I was watching the Big Idea tonight (http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838512/) and saw a segment on LinkedIn the social networking site that claims to be redefining power as connective networking. It is doing that through its networked internet means. But the term and process of networking was invented 30 some years ago by feminist Scotty Welch. She wrote a book of the same name. Her idea was to identify the type of social relating that she observed women doing when they helped each other and call it networking.

So women of America, on this 4th of July, it is time we exercised our power to connect with each other and demand that the country take us seriously--remember we are the majority of the population and the majority of the voters.

Barack to the Future: What Will Presidential Hopefuls Do for Women?

Madelaine Albright signed on to Senator Obama's advisory team the other day in a move to heal the wounds from the recent historic, mind-blowing, I never thought to see in my life time, Democratic party presidential primary campaign.

I was a Clinton supporter, because I believe that having our first woman president in 230 YEARS would be an EXTRAORDINARY move forward for our country in declaring to the world that America has at last decided to acknowledge the bedrock depths of sexism and all its crafty and insidious interlinkings with racism, ageism,  class, and all the other power imbalances in our country.

BUT I will give my full and enthusiastic support to Senator Obama and HOPE if he is elected that he will do right by America's women and girls who constitute the majority of the population, the majority of the poor, the majority of the elderly, the majority of income discrimination, the majority who are at the bottom ranks of the labor force, the majority who are raped and sexually abused and harrassed, the majority of those who carry the double and triple burdens of caregiving to their own health detriment.

Jennifer H. Mieres, MD, FAHA and Terri Ann Parnell, RN and MA (with Carol Turkington) have pointed out the deliterious health effects, especially on women's heart health, of stress, gender, ethnicity, and other social factors such as poverty in their new book, "Heart Smart for Black Women and Latinas" (2008 St. Martin's). Our presidential candidates need to take into account issues such as these authors raise as they are crafting their strategies.

I HOPE Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain will do what no other presidents have ever done and recognize that women of ALL SHADES OF TAN are the majority of their citizenry.  Terressa Stovall writes in the current issue of the Montclair Times about the challenge to blacks and whites dealing with racism. I could not agree more. We have to acknowledge and repair the injuries of slavery and racism and how those continue to play out in the life of our nation. And we must change.

AND I challenge all to think beyond the simple dichotomy of black and white that excludes those of other heritages.

I challenge us to think in shades of tan and understand how those shades interlink with the  divides and discriminations that reside in the artificality of gender. We already see it with Michelle Obama getting slammed.

Clinton Obama Bracket the Baby Boomer Generation: Can Boomerism Really Be Dead? And Do We Want It to Be?

Why Mr. Zogby, would anyone want to give up our hopefulness, our energy, our creativity for new ideas, new organizational forms, new ways of doing things (what you call Boomer adolescence and me-centeredness), our commitment to social change, equality for all women and men irrespective of their particular shade of tan for your brand of so-called maturity? A "maturity" that is downright nasty, bitter, hostile, filled with undeniable aggression and outright verbal violence against women. Specifically against Senator Hillary Clinton who you described having received a knockout punch and other unsavory sexist sports laden metaphors.

Zolby comments

If being hopeful and being creative, innovative, forward looking, focused on the good of all, and introspective in order to bring forth the best in self and others is me-centered, then fella, we need a lot more of it since we are going down the you know what hole and fast.

Since Senator and Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is also a BOOMER! He is imbued with all the best of boomer characteristics--and those ARE a commitment to peace and equality, a commitment to diversity and inclusion, a commitment to national and international cross cultural understanding and a solutions-orientation that is a little more intelligent that a sandbox gimme and grab policy--"Mine and if you don't, I'll hit you and take it!" We've certainly seen a lot of that in the last eight years. And thousands have died as a result of this infantile approach.

If Boomers are "adolescent", THAT IS A GREAT thing and a precedence for Gen Xers and Gen Yers to create a “maturity” that will retain all the best of Boomer ideals and practices, while creating new ways of their own.

I say Boomerism should live on in its best aspect, because it reflects the core ideals of America: future orientation, bootstrap creativity, hopefulness, innovation, inclusiveness. So, Mr. Zogby, who are you calling adolescent? In my book, it's the bullies, like you, who need to grow up! And tell us, just when were you born? 1948 wasn't it? Sounds like a Boomer to me!

I'm No Madonna, but I Am An Older Adoptive Mom

What I find fascinating about the original Material Girl is her blunt out there larger than life self. I've been a Madonna fan since she acted in John Sayles movie, "Lianna." Well, she certainly did it again with her role as "Mama Madonna"--hey isn't that a duplicate--mama=madonna?Anyway, now she's been making waves with her efforts to adopt from Malawi. I can't comment on the pros and cons of this effort or whether or not she is a guinea pig for others to emulate, or whether you or I approve her actions or not. But Sister Mama, you are reFIRING! 

Mama Madonna

What I find fascinating is her coming to this difficult wonderful, demanding, enriching role around 50. I was 50 when I adopted. Now my daughter is 13 and  I am 63. There are thousands of us older adoptive moms (and Dads) out there. What being an older parent does for you is age you in particular ways. It is very demanding mentally and physically.

Your aging project/ trajectory is now two-fold while you are thinking ahead to your own reFIREMENT/retirement you are thinking down for the well-being of your child. (Of course all parents of conscience do this, but the contrast is a sharp one when there is such a big numbers difference.) It is a challenge to think down in age. What I mean is that over the course of those 50 years--a half century, you do develop a store house of wisdom (hopefully) and history. You have references and touch points and suddenly many of those have to be rethought in the light of the young life who is growing up in a world 50 years removed from your own!

Few of the children growing up nowadays know that seeds produce food. Or that digital and virtual are only a few years old. They live in an expanded and frightened world. Take for instance, the asbestos issue at my daughter's school. When it was found the whole school was evacuated and closed for two days during cleaning. My brother reminded me that our new state of the art high school in N.C. which opened in the late fifties was proud of the asbestos insulation on all the ducts and pipes delivering  heat to every classroom. So it is likely even probable that most of us boomers have contaminated lungs.

Because our childhood worlds are so different (similar to the distance between my mother and me--she remembering the first telephone, her first airplane [cloth and wood that landed in a cow pasture], her first paved road, her first automobile), I have to come up to speed on a daily basis. I resisted the cell phone for my daughter until I could understand that the virtual community was as important as the face face community and is was/is as REAL to her. And since she is the one who will most probably live to 100 or more, given the increasing numbers of centenarians, she needs to be fluent in her world. I am running to catch up.

So, Sister Mama (Madonna) when you get your complications worked out, get set to enter a new world. Maybe we'll be seeing you soon in a new music Youtube as "Virtual Mama Girl!" And, Madonna, I love it that you are letting your 50 year old neck and hands be natural. That is a good thing.