Does it ever make you angry when old people try to blame you for the problems of today without acknowledging that they caused them?
Below is a lengthy chain-email I received blaming me for screwing up America. After that is my response. While mine doesn't exactly represent my thoughts it did feel good to write. They are both fairly long, but if your in the mood for a stupid argument you might enjoy them!
Letter #1
Grey-Haired Brigade
They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs. Some of us are "Baby Boomers" getting ready to retire. Others have been retired for some time. We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were. We have worked hard, raised our children, worshiped our God and grown old together. Yes, we are the ones some refer to as being over the hill, and that is probably true. But before writing us off completely, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration.
In school we studied English, history, math, and science which enabled us to lead America into the technological age. Most of us remember what outhouses were, many of us with firsthand experience. We remember the days of telephone party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes. For those of you who don't know what an icebox is, today they are electric and referred to as refrigerators. A few even remember when cars were started with a crank. Yes, we lived those days.
We are probably considered old fashioned and out-dated by many. But there are a few things you need to remember before completely writing us off. We won World War II, fought in Korea and Viet Nam. We can quote The Pledge of Allegiance, and know where to place our hand while doing so. We wore the uniform of our country with pride and lost many friends on the battlefield. We didn't fight for the Socialist States of America, we fought for the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." We wore different uniforms but carried the same flag. We know the words to the Star Spangled Banner, America, and America the Beautiful by heart, and you may even see some tears running down our cheeks as we sing. We have lived what many of you have only read about in history books and we feel no obligation to apologize to anyone for America.
Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us. We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it. It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us. We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep. There are those who want to destroy this land we love but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.
It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress. You fell for the "Hope and Change" which in reality was nothing but "Hype and Lies." You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don't like it after all. You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or "Climbing the Social Ladder" to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting. Many of those who fell for the "Great Lie" in 2008 are now having buyer's remorse. With all the education we gave you, you didn't have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the 'Cool-Aid.' Now you're paying the price and complaining about it. No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom. This is what you voted for and this is what you got. We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for a paycheck and a fancy house.
Well, don't worry youngsters, the Grey-Haired Brigade is here, and in 2012 we are going to take back our nation. We may drive a little slower than you would like but we get where we're going, and in 2012 we're going to the polls by the millions. This land does not belong to the man in the White House nor to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It belongs to "We the People" and "We the People" plan to reclaim our land and our freedom. We hope this time you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren. So the next time you have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Stand up, put your hand over your heart, honor our country, and thank God for the old geezers of the "Grey-Haired Brigade."
Author, Anon. Grey-Haired Brigade Member
Footnote:
This is spot on. I am another Gray-Haired Geezer signing on. I will circulate this to other Gray-Haired Geezers all over this once great county. Can you feel the ground shaking??? It's not an earthquake, it is a STAMPEDE.
Letter #2
Grey-Haired Brigade,
I call BS. Let’s examine your “few things that need to be taken into consideration” one by one, shall we?
First of all, congratulations on having studied English, history, math and science and leading America into the technological age.
My generation now studies English and foreign languages.
My generation, instead of learning history from quaint, biased books written by authors exclusively from our own race, reads and writes history books that are rigorously researched and peer reviewed by scholars from all over the world. If we don’t know as much general history as you, it is simply because we have learned that the superficial lens of history that your generation viewed the world through inexorably led to poor, ill-informed decisions. Instead, we choose to specialize our knowledge of history and then come together with a collection of in depth research to base our decisions on.
My generation, while we are dependent on calculators for doing things like simple arithmetic, uses those calculators to push the limits of math further than ever before. And, while we are impressed that you studied math by counting spiders in your outhouses, even our dumbest high school students have at least a basic knowledge of calculus.
My generation studies science too! In fact, one of the biggest things we study is how to reverse the alarming trend of anthropogenic caused climate change your generation’s application of science started … thanks!
Congratulations, also, on remembering what outhouses are and on struggling to live through the days of iceboxes. Thanks to your generation’s reckless pursuit of the consumer goods you despise us for having grown up with it is likely that my generation will get to use those same antiques again soon! Or haven’t you heard that our generation will enjoy a lower standard of living than yours did, precisely because your generation obtained those evil commodities by paying for them with money you didn’t have and outsourcing their production (and our jobs along with them) overseas?
I’ll admit that I cannot congratulate you on the qualities you praise yourself for having as a consequence of being old fashioned and outdated. For instance, you fail to mention that your generation caused World War II by not properly resolving World War I. And, do you really expect us to praise you for your divided, confused and ultimately failed conquests of Korea and Viet Nam? The fact that you lost many friends on the battlefield is a result of your generation electing leaders that felt it was more important to police the world than it was to preserve the lives of their youth.
Should I be impressed that you can quote the pledge of allegiance while placing your hand over your heart? I’m pretty sure we could train a parrot to do the same (if parrots had hands, that is). What would have been more impressive is if you would have taught that pledge to your hippy children from the 60s and 70s that were burning the very flag you were paying allegiance to. Great parenting!
You didn’t fight for the Socialist States of America? Puh-lease! Who was your president during the majority of World War II? Who did you allow to pass legislation in the 60’s? We didn’t create Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. FDR and LBJ were your presidents! Whether you fought for socialism or not, you voted for it or didn’t speak out strongly enough against it when it was in its infancy in America.
We might feel inclined to look on you with pride when tears run down your cheeks as you sing our country’s hymns until we remember that you are crying for what your generation gave up and the ruined country you are passing on to us, your grandchildren. Also, we’ve heard you say over and over again that you won’t apologize for America abroad. Fine. We want the apologies made to us for leaving us with your mess to clean up while you scooter around your nursing homes in your jazzy chairs.
YOU are going to save this country? About time! You’ve been screwing it up for the past 80 years!
You’re right in that it was mostly the young people of this nation that elected Obama and the Democratic Congress. But, what choice did we have? After eight years of putting up with the president you elected that took our nation from a budget surplus to a budget deficit, continued the ruinous housing policies of Bill Clinton that crashed our economy, killed thousands of our brothers and sisters fighting on foreign soil under the pretext of a lie and ruined the American reputation in general can you really blame us for wanting some change? Any change? And, may we please remind you, disastrous as our election of Barack Obama has been, he was raised by your generation, not ours!
We “make a lot of noise, but most [of us] are all too interested in [our] careers or "Climbing the Social Ladder" to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting,” eh? Perhaps that is because despite all the noise we make we can’t get rid of the idiots you lot have been electing to office year after year after year. Barney Frank? Orrin Hatch? John Kerry? John McCain? Your generation has done a great job at electing real winners! And as for climbing the social ladder, what social ladder are you talking about? Your generation dismantled that ladder long ago by outsourcing first manufacturing jobs, next engineering jobs and now technological jobs overseas. Why? So you could afford refrigerators built by cheap foreign labor with the money you receive from your pensions and Social Security, two other things we won’t ever have. The reason we attend university for so long is so we can compete for the few good jobs that are left in this country or so we can put off for as long as possible the day that we have to take the menial service jobs you’ve left us with (tending bar or washing your filthy butts in your nursing homes). Some social ladder.
What worries me most, however, is not your ridiculous and demonstrably false tirade about how you’ve saved the country time and time again, but rather the fact that you say your generation is going to try and save it again! PLEASE DON’T! Haven’t you done enough damage already? Or haven’t you realized that Nancy Pelosi (age 71) and Harry Reid (age 72) are both the products of your generation? If you’ve been saving the country for so long, why haven’t you ever gotten rid of them before now?
And how are you going to save the country? By electing Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney? Like that would be a huge change from the George Bush’s of the past … In the meantime, you’ll keep on ignoring Ron Paul because he doesn’t want to waste trillions of dollars playing policeman all over the globe.
So, Gray-Haired Geezer, please don’t stampede to the polls with your walker and your equally delusional friends. As noble as you think your sentiments are, we know they aren’t true. You’ll keep on voting to extend Social Security, to keep Medicaid around so I can subsidize the continuation of your artificially preserved life and you’ll keep sending back the same losers you’ve been sending to congress for the past 50 years. And, you’ll either cause an accident on your way to the polls or drive so slow getting there that you’ll prevent five members of my generation from getting to the ballot box on time to cast their more informed votes.
Author, Anon. Youth Fix-It Brigade Member.
PS. Sorry for any errors in my post. I'll have more time to proofread my posts when I retire to a nursing home...
