Maybe ‘Baby Boom’ Needs Redefining

“The Age of Denial” (Feb. 9), about the baby-boom generation, is a denial of history.

The term “baby boom” originated in the late 1940s to refer to an obvious and visible social trend. The GIs returning from World War II seemed to all be getting married and fathering children. This rush of births lasted five years, 1945-1950.

In 1951, the baby boom was considered over, and began to be referred to in the past tense in conversations and descriptions.

The term “baby boom” was never meant to be perverted into the title of a 15-to-20-year generation.

BRENT BAKER

Isla Vista

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It appears you have reduced an entire generation into a monetary perspective and in doing so, missed the point entirely.

I graduated high school in 1967, the “summer of love.”

I submit a brief review of that era’s activism:

* War was viewed as an obscenity. You would do well to study the antiwar movement. There is great value in the phrase, “Tell it like it is.” War is indeed hell.

* The seeds of racial equality sown in the ‘50s bore some measurable fruit in the ‘60s. New attitudes toward racial relations came forth. Unfortunately, Dr. Martin Luther King’s philosophies and dreams have been sadly diluted with time. Today we have angst and hatred among our youth.

* Education was a national priority. We expected, and received what we believed was the birthright of our generation. My public high school had a diverse curriculum, a library, a music and art program, a sports program, hot lunches, regular student counseling, and teachers who were paid enough to live a normal life. Student loans for a college education were readily available to a broad cross-section of society. The educational system was a source of pride and it wasn’t about money.

* The environment received renewed interest. The concept of a global village moved from the theoretical to the real. For the first time, we saw ourselves from space. I believe this legacy still exists, and the environmentalists of my era are to be thanked. Our air, water, plant and animal life have stopped spinning out of control. The environmental battles of today are fought predominantly by boomers.

We had it right in many regards. Time has proven so.

I will even go so far as to say that I am vain about my generation’s mistakes.

We ventured far from the beaten path and got burned a lot for the effort.

The effort, the exertion of will to change is conspicuously missing in the younger generation.

JOE TORTORICI

Burbank

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Where, where did The Times find writer Dennis Romero? Wherever, he is terrific. His “The Age of Denial” is a wonderfully witty and hilariously accurate perspective on the entry of baby boomers into “mid-youth,” their euphemism of choice.

Romero believes “Geezer Television” is on the horizon. Flash! With every film and TV show for the last decade, we’ve been getting 40-plus actors dashing about acting young. Geezer TV is already here.

PATRICIA MERRILL

Los Angeles

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I’m one of those individuals whose correct generation seems to be in dispute. I was born in 1963, and I’m supposed to be a baby boomer. Yet the authors of the book “Generations” claim that I’m a Generation Xer. Personally, I consider myself to be a second-wave boomer--these are all the boomers who were too young to be hippies in the ‘60s.

I consider us to be the punk generation--the ones who created and listened to punk rock. We got a lot of our anger and cynicism from that era. We’re also angry because we didn’t get the attention the older boomers got, and we also didn’t get those great jobs they got in the ‘80s.

The authors of “Generations” completely misread the cynicism they saw in people born in the early ‘60s. They feel the Generation Xers created cynicism, forgetting that people from the punk generation, long before the Xers came along, were very alienated.

I resent being lumped in with the Xers. I can’t stand the ‘70s, and cannot understand why Xers love that era so much. Also, the Xers lack passion. They’re empty. Even when they rebel, there seems to be no real point to it. Maybe people my age weren’t as politically involved as the hippies, but punk still had a point to it.

I’m annoyed with how the older boomers get so much attention. They aren’t the first people to turn 50. It will be funny when a Depends commercial comes along with Jimi Hendrix music playing in the background, but also pathetic.

TAMMY SMITH

Lakeside