Baby Boomers and Generation X
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Bridgers as a generation, have had a major “attitudinal adjustment” similar to
mine when I visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. The camp
was originally built in the 1930s to imprison communists, later expanding to include
Jews, and other “undesirables.” After the war, the communists took over the prison
and imposed the same tortures on the jailors as had been done to them as the jailed.
In America, similar hypocrisies have taught Bridgers to be cautious of any person
promoting an agenda. Blacks marching in the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties
had a legitimate complaint, but once blacks began to see progress, many of them
wanted to simply use that power to place themselves in a privileged position over
whites and other races. Women had a legitimate complaint against patriarchal
society, but their assertions of universal equality diminished; the remaining voices
speaking sought to show women’s superiority. Concerning religion, race, sex, or
any other classification, Bridgers have concluded that what most people and
institutions want is not to be treated equally but to attain the privileged slot they
fight to get others out of.
One of the most potent signs of this difference was the reactions of American
Boomers and Bridgers after the horrendous shootings at Columbine High School
in April 1999. Within hours Boomers were on television insisting that we call
these kids monsters, not human beings, for what they did. But as the kids who
were actually in the high school began to speak to the public, you could hear a
different tone. One of the kids who was shot refused to categorize his shooters as
the twisted creatures the media was making them out to be: “I knew Dylan,” he
said, “We had a chemistry class together. He wasn’t a monster. He was just a normal
kid.” It wasn’t an issue of “monster” or “kids taken by Satan” versus “human” as
some Boomers asserted. As one of the other Columbine students put it, “Dylan
was a good kid. He made some bad decisions.” Rather than searching for easy
excuses, many Bridgers and Millennials took more direct action. Students began
to sign pledges to end the isolating cliques and the harassment that has been a
tradition in high school. A day after another shooting in Paducah, Kentucky, cards
were found that read: “We forgive you, Mike,” and “We forgive because God
forgave us.” The sister of Michael Cameal, the killer, was invited to sing at the
funeral of one of the girls he killed (Pederson 35).
Still some Boomers wanted to reduce these events to binary issues — the boys
in Littleton were evil, and “we” are good. In an attempt at reconciliation and healing,
a carpenter from Indiana placed fifteen crosses on a hill overlooking Littleton,
including two for Harris and Klebold. Within hours, two of the fathers of slain
children had dug up the crosses for the two murderers, claiming they didn’t have
any right to be there. The very isolation and stigmatizing that led Harris and Klebold
to their acts continued after their deaths. The next day the carpenter came and
removed all of the crosses; if there cannot be help for all, there will be none for
any.