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Commentary: Millennials could effect even more social change than the baby boomers

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Baby boomers. We were so certain of our uniqueness, of our destiny to defy the inevitability of history and change the world.

There were so many of us. We would overwhelm the forces of evil that spawned the senseless Vietnam War and the brutality of racism. It was as if we were meant to be young at an ordained time in order to meet the tumult of injustice head-on and usher in a new era of peace and equality.

But, oh how flawed we were — never trust anyone over 30 — and dismissive of our parents for having a stake in the system and buying into the American Dream, a dream so frail and perhaps illusory.

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But we fatigued so quickly in pursuit of our ideals.

After Kent State, realizing that the protective womb of the campus ruptured and that they could actually kill us, we receded from the struggle and forged a new strategy — take the system over from within. But oh how readily we caved, co-opted by our own greed and narcissism. One day we awoke and found ourselves toeing the line as obedient company men and women.

But finally, change is in the air.

A new generation is here — the millennials, and their slightly younger brothers and sisters.

They are an emerging force. I deal with them daily at the gym, where I am old enough to be their grandfather but am treated like a bro; in the senior center, where I volunteer as a driver delivering meals to seniors less mobile than I and the twentysomething coordinators are endlessly congenial and respectful; and in stores, where the young retail workers are ceaselessly courteous and patient.

Where does all this “fragile as snowflakes and rattled by microaggressions” nonsense, of which they are accused, come from? Perhaps from curmudgeonly boomers, who swore they would never become like their parents and never grow old.

“Never trust anyone over 30” went the Boomer mantra, but it seems all are welcome within the inclusive millennial tent — all races and creeds, young and old, gay, straight, trans. Come one, come all.

After the shooting massacre in Parkland, Fla., in which 14 students and three teachers were slaughtered by a sick student with an all-too-easily obtained assault rifle, the expected and sickeningly redundant response by NRA beholden politicians was issued as if by script: “We extend our prayers and condolences.”

The slaughter was characterized as a tragedy, tantamount to a natural disaster, followed by the customary litany of improved school security, screening for red flags, arm-the-teachers debates, ad nauseam. Everything, of course, but ban assault rifles. In the past, after such massacres, the cries and pleas for gun reform would raise a tepid debate, then after a few weeks there would be a return to status quo.

Not this time. Those very young people stepped up to the plate without flinching. Spearheaded by the Parkland shooting survivors they coalesced quickly with one demand obvious in its simplicity — the right to go to school without fearing for their lives on a daily basis.

These were high school students, barely beyond childhood, standing up before millions with pride and conviction, speaking with a strength and eloquence forged by trauma that belies there youth. They have seen death at their feet, the blood of their friends spilled around them. They will never be children again.

And they grow in number. They were uncorrupted and unyielding armies at the “March For Our Lives” rallies. Some say we are sliding inexorably toward totalitarianism. I think of the old saw, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men (and women) to do nothing.”

Our young are doing something.

And so, for you fellow baby boomers, we’re not dead yet. Don’t let a joint replacement or bypass keep you from reconnecting with your old passion and ideals.

And you young people? Keep moving forward. Vote. Organize.

The fight will not be easy. The march may be uphill. You can handle it. Look at what you’ve already done. You are the new vanguard. Finish the job we started.

You are young, you are the future. Now go out and take it.

RON TERRANOVA lives in Huntington Beach.

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