Sandwiched between the Greatest Generation (born 1902-1927) that saw us through the Depression and World War II and the Baby Boomers/Me Generation (born 1946-1964) is my generation, (1928-1045) known as the Silent Generation. Silent, perhaps, because there were fewer of us and we lived in fairly pleasant times. Life was pretty good for most of us.
We weren’t entirely silent. We cheered the election of John Kennedy and supported Lyndon Johnson’s commitment to civil rights and the war on poverty while opposing Vietnam. In college and after, I remember protesting everything from letting women wear Bermuda shorts on campus and making them observe curfew in dorms to Vietnam We had lots of babies (I contributed three) and women explored new careers after ignoring their mothers’ recommendation of teacher, nurse, secretary. We had TV and Rock/n’ Roll, the pill and polio vaccine. It was an era of, as they say in New Orleans, to “laissez les bons temps router.” (Let the good times roll.) It was the best of times, just as the millennials —our grandchildren–are coming of age in the worst of times.
As we did in the 1960s of fond memory, it is time for our small but powerful generation to stand up and speak out. Now in our 70s to 90s, many of us are financially secure and not vulnerable to threats from the emerging police state. I recently listened to a retired general on TV who would like to continue working part time as a consultant but can’t be hired because he spoke out against the Trump administration and lost his security clearance. But he has another kind of security, financial security, and as a retired military person a strong sense of patriotic duty, he is using his time to fight Trump instead.
We have resources that can be put to work to retrieve our democracy. We have money. We have time. We have experience and skills. We can shelter immigrants, boycott businesses (Washington Post, CBS, Fox News)) that kowtow to Trump. WE can volunteer for community groups to provide mutual support while also engaging those who live in the other world of Trump and Fox News. We can vocalize our opinions, contribute to ACLU and PBS and private foreign aid, attend protests, annoy our representatives in state legislatures and Congress, support candidates or run for office, and file lawsuits (I am a party to one against our Trump-like City Council). What we cannot do is sit at home and say “Woe is me” Withdrawal is not an option, it is amoral obligation for those of us for whom the danger is smallest.
Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran minister in Nazi Germany, left us these immortal words: \
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
When your great0grandchildren want to know what you did in the face of this challenge to our democracy, what will you tell them?
PurpleSage41 