generational shadows
Marina’s family was not so much cursed by generation wars as by an actual war cursing the generations which has overshadowed the entire 60 years of her life. “Like all Baby Boomers, I grew up in the shadow of parents who had fought in WWII or been affected by it,” says Marina, “and they never ceased to tell us how grateful we should be for the sacrifices their generation had made for us.”
“My dad was a real war hero – he returned injured from the war and died before his time,” explains Marina, “but the rest of my extended family of his generation were merely serving time during the war and are undeserving frauds that peddle endless war films and stories and religiously attend veterans’ marches to glorify themselves at our expense.”
“My generation, the Boomers, fought in the Vietnam War or was affected by it,” says Marina, “yet we received no respect at all from our elders because they never saw it as a ‘real’ war, like WWII.”
“Also, the respect that I showed to my parents and extended family of the Golden Generation while growing up was not reciprocated when my own children grew up,” says Marina. “It seems that my parents’ generation has stitched up ‘respect’ to such an extent that only they deserve it because of WWII.”
“They stitched up ‘respect’ by schools focusing on WWII to the detriment of all wars before and after; by endless movies and television shows focusing on WWII; and the annual veterans’ march designed to glorify their deeds – and no other generation’s sacrifices.”
“I am totally sick of hearing my mother and my aunts and uncles talking about WWII and expecting me to me ‘grateful’ for what they did.”
Read more by Marina on this issue:
Labels: baby boomers, generations, golden generation, respect, shadows, wwii
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