What is a boomer to do?

So now it is our fault that so much gas has been consumed, and that we will cost the country so much in Social Security. That we paid into Social Security all these years, and that our parents embraced consumption, and schooled us in it, are not relevant.

We tried. Ours was the first Earth Day (the year I graduated high school).We marched against the Vietnam War. Many of our brothers, cousins, friends died in that war--the last generation to be drafted. We rebelled and revolted against our parents' Mad Men values. Yet we are being pilloried in the press and on the web as being greedy, selfish, youth-smitten black holes of consumerism. How did this happen? Why was my parents' generation the "Greatest", when we were also drafted, and also threatened by the world's madness? 

I know. They suffered the Depression (mom still saved foil, and I did, also, when newly married). They were terrified of being conquered by the terrible despots of the time. We feared that our leaders would be assassinated, again. We feared we would be shot by the National Guard if we protested. We feared nuclear annihilation.

When I was small, home from a routine school practice for the event of nuclear war, I asked my father why the Russians would attack us. In Cleveland, of all places. He answered this way, "We have steel mills. They would want to get those first.". We had dog tags. ("oh...in case you get lost...")So, yes, you of the Millennial generation have suffered since high school from the possibility of terrorist attacks (we suffered, too, for you). But we suffered from a world gone mad over the possibility of nuclear holocaust.

Now we work, still, because we can't afford not to, or we don't work because you are cheaper than we have been for employers. We vote. We pay taxes. Some of us actually own a house. But there are many boomers who are supporting both children and elderly parents on low-wage jobs. Most of us aren't doing Botox or going to spas. Give us a break, folks! Stop saying we shouldn't get Social Security or that we shouldn't be allowed to vote!  

Shame.

I know there is suffering in this country and the world among younger people, and I want for every one of us to come up with strategies to help. But please don't scapegoat Boomers. We are a product of our parents, as you are of us. We are in it together.