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 Hillary
Clinton is a Baby Boomer. So are Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Isn't it odd, however, that when many people speak of an Obama Presidency,
they constantly refer to a "new generation" of leadership?
But if he is a Baby Boomer, then how could that be?
Born in 1961,
he obviously is not Generation X either. So a piece of the puzzle
is missing. What are we not being told?
Barack Obama
is part of a generation that was "dropped off the radar screen"
of public attention some 40 years ago. They are now re-emerging
as a force, as they begin to see their role taking shape in American
society. They are maturing, embracing their mission, and - equally
important - are starting to recognize themselves as a distinct generation.
We're talking
about the "Sixties Kids", also known as the "Children
of the Dream", or the Ambassador Generation.
Witnesses to the cultural revolutions of the sixties, but not old
enough to participate, their very existence became
an uncomfortable reality for many when the country shifted politically
to the right in the seventies.
They were very
nearly wiped out by two plagues, one of them man-made, that struck
with a fury in the eighties.
They have been
overlooked to the point of invisibility, and in spite of that, have
changed the world profoundly already.
They were raised
on the priciples of fairness, justice, and equal opportunity, as
opposed to the subsequent "greed is good" philosophy that
has allowed so many to be left behind as simply "collateral
damage".
And now they
sense they are needed as never before. With one foot in the old
school, and one foot in the new, they are
positioned as no one else to bring creative, elegant solutions to
the table for many of the challenges the world faces.
Barack Obama's
political rise is the bugle call to a hidden generation - and not
a moment too soon.
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