On the Eve of This Election, Is Your Finger Pointing, Too?

I write this for my kids and all the Generation Y’ers brought up to believe they had more than they had and that they’d always have it. Here’s the truth: lots of your parents f#$%ed up.

Not all of us but a whole lot did. Some of us have been forced to own it because we’re living in its truth anyway. We didn’t downsize; we lost our foundation built mostly on credit. Credit our kids viewed as wealth except it wasn’t. It was a loan and many of us defaulted. Some simply lost our shirts. Some lost our family life that looked good on the outside because we thought that’s what counted, looking good.

I blame it on the times. I won’t go back – that’s historians’ work- but I will say this, I was there and I remember. When Ronnie and Nancy came on the national scene all glammed out, we wanted some glam, too. By then, we’d witnessed Nixon denigrate the White House without going to jail. Instead, we did deny Gerald Ford his own term, voted him out and brought in a Beltway outsider, a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia named Jimmy Carter, a Democrat and self-made man who had a conscience. Too much it turned out.  We decided he was a wimp and voted him out after one term, too.

By then, Boomers coveted the good life our college educations guaranteed us, at least that was our thinking at the time.  When Ronnie took over, he deregulated everything so the games could begin. How we loved the new playground he built just for us.  After Reagan came George Bush #1 and we know what happened to him. “Read my lips: no new taxes” ended up words he had to eat even if raising those taxes was necessary. But damn it, he lied so out he went, too. We voted in another outsider, William Jefferson – led by his little brain- Clinton. Our 42nd president was a man of great intellect and not so great upbringing, which ended up stopping him where lots of us get stopped; by our own dysfunction. He also denigrated the office of the presidency proving that Democrats can be dogs, too, just of a different kind.

George Bush #2 may have been a collision of several accidents that just happened or a president who stole the election but whatever brought him into the White House made him a star for a while. Ronnie reincarnated; a cowboy we wanted to entertain us and he did until things got serious and his incompetence caught up with him. Between 9/11, waging war for no reason and profit margins slimming, America was forced to wake up and get back to ‘basics’  a word not in style for several decades.

Time for change again; this time Barack Hussein Obama, a Beltway beginner and the first of his kind to reside in the Oval Office, a half white, half African American man who won an election, the hearts of millions and a whole lot of enemies.

It’s been hell since. One has to wonder if it’s because he’s half African American.  One has to wonder if white America decided to give him a chance because we figured he’d work twice as hard to prove himself. Isn’t that what all minorities do?  One has to wonder why this president is attracting such venom when he’s doing such good work considering what we gave him to work with.

Whatever the reason, they won’t let him be. They point fingers at him and goad Joe & Josie Public into pointing fingers, too. Their screams are incessant:  It’s his fault! We gave him twenty-two months!

It’s true. In 22 months, the Obama Administration has not fixed all that ails our country so we can reclaim the good life lost when our collective ‘good life living’ lifestyle nearly collapsed our country’s infrastructure and credibility world-wide.

I write this for my children and Generation Y’ers. Your parents f#$%ed up.

A lot of us did. Some of us are willing to own it; some have been forced to while some remain invested in protecting the good life earned by capitalizing on deregulated laws their college degrees helped them decode.  That’s the America they cherish; the one that made them rich. If I was one of them, my view might be self serving, too, though I’d like to think not. I know lots of rich folks who are generous, too.

I write this for those voters, young and not so young, who want to vote the ‘bums’ out in a few days. I write this to those voters who could help our President continue to fix the wrongs rooted deep inside our country’s core. A lesson I learned the hard way and one I hope voters reading this at least consider when casting their votes on Tuesday:  For every finger you point, three point back at you.

President Obama @ USC Rally on 10/22/2010: “Don’t Give Them The Keys!”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zYoCm_iBLo[/youtube]