The Obama generation

Re “Obama’s generation moves beyond the ‘60s,” Dec. 18

I was born in 1959 to parents from “the greatest generation” who were 42 years old at the time of my birth. My childhood memories of the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy are black and white TV images. All I recall of JFK’s assassination was that my cartoons were interrupted.

When I read your article profiling the Obama generation, I had nothing short of an epiphany -- and a surprisingly emotional response. For the first time, I had a true generational identity. Everything you said rang true and resonated with me.

As a late boomer, I knew that my issues were different from early boomers’. It was never so clear as when women rallied around Hillary Clinton during the primary, while I was an Obama supporter from the beginning. I felt a mild guilt for abandoning Hillary -- but I did not share the same feelings as late boomer women who took Hillary’s candidacy almost personally.

Obama spoke to me. Obama listened to the same music as me. Obama saw the world like me. And Obama is 2 1/2 years younger than me. He is the first president in my lifetime younger than me; he is truly my first president. We late boomers finally have our own identity: the Obama generation.

Amy Luskey-Barth

Long Beach