Willie Nelson’s sings advice to a guy whose wife has left him, “don’t start believing that your rock’n roll days are gone.” As a member of the “boomer” generation, I think the same is true of us as well. Social Security is reaching out to take hold of our lives but as Willie says our “rock’n roll days” were not left in the past.
This weekend is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. I was not there but I wish I had been.
I can hear the chuckles through the pages of the paper. “You in the long-sleeve shirt and tie? Woodstock!”
I loved the music. I owned a VW van. If this year was 1969, I would still not have gone but today, in 2009, I think back and wonder, “why not?” With the criticism and disbelief by our elders of our generation, all we wanted was for the world to be a better place.
When our president was still a senator he said, “baby boomers need to get over themselves.” Recently, I read a story written about Senator Barack Obama by John Broder in 2007. “Mr. Obama calculates that Americans of all ages are sick of the feuding boomers and ready to turn to the generation that came of age after Vietnam, after the campus culture wars between freaks and straights ...
“Mr. Obama, who was born in 1961 and considers himself a member of the post-boomer generation, said Americans hungered for ‘a different kind of politics,’ one that moved beyond the tired ideological battles of the 1960s,” wrote Mr. Broder. I doubt Mr. Obama had any idea of just how “sick” he would get of the boomers in 2009 at all the Health Care Town Hall meetings.
In the same article, the writer wrote about the senator’s second book, “The Audacity of Hope.” “Mr. Obama,” he wrote, “is critical of the style and the politics of the ’60s, when the psyches of most of his potential rivals for the White House were formed. He writes that the politics of that era were highly personal, burrowing into every interaction between youth and authority and among peers. The battles moved to Washington in the 1990s and endure today, he says.”
Yep! That was us ... “burrowing into every interaction between youth and authority....” We still have a problem with “authority” and it is still directed mainly at Washington. This time, it is not us in our youth but us as old folks, but we have not forgotten how to burrow. Steve Kluger wrote a column this week in USA Today of “The Aging of Aquarius.” He said of Mr. Obama’s thinking when he was a senator, “Pride dies hard when your leaders call you irrelevant.” And to today’s generation, he writes this reminder, “... it takes more than an iPod plugged into one ear, a cell phone glued to the other and a sense of entitlement that doesn’t require a struggle first.”
Remember this, and Willie sang it best: “Diamonds are forever and these old cars keep rolling on. And all those ‘I love you forevers’ they’re just words that can’t be depended on ... cause nothin’ lasts forever but old Fords and a natural stone.”
Sandy Sanders
‘Old Fords and natural stone’
- Sandy Sanders
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Think before you answer
I got an email this week where a writer of an online column tells the story of a young child in Sunday School. The writer says the little boy’s teacher asked his class ‘What’s the animal with a long, bushy tail that lives in trees?’ One child quickly answers while probably thinking about the usual answer to questions in his church Sunday School, ‘Jesus. Though it sure sounds like a squirrel to me.’
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Forgiveness, redemption go together
The news story on Friday read: “WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Thursday to censure once-powerful New York Rep. Charles Rangel for multiple ethical misdeeds — the first time in nearly three decades that House members have publicly rebuked a colleague.
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South Georgia roots run deep for these execs
David Ratcliffe and Mike Garrett, two highly respected executives with Valdosta and South Georgia ties, will be stepping down as leaders of two of the largest power companies in the nation by yearend.
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VDT ready with all-new digital edition
You can now go to the home page of our website (www.valdostadailytimes.com) and click on the link for our digital e-edition. You can sign up for a seven-day trial or, if you currently subscribe to the print edition, we will be glad to add the e-edition just by calling our office for details.
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We are losing our children and we are blaming ‘others’
Extinction! There are public outcries to save animals, bugs and reptiles while our own children are being lost to a new world order. In the past two weeks, I have seen two students, one high school, one middle school, with their parents blessing bring to the public area all the details of their student-teacher antics. Each student had been suspended from school and one was making his way to court.
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Do we want tax or football braggin’ rights?
A drop in our property digest seems evident and to maintain we will need a tax increase. We can recruit higher-paying jobs to the county and get more taxes that way but is that practical thinking for a quick adjustment in this economy?
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Blazer Zone moving into Drexel Park
Next Saturday, Blazer fan families will have a great opportunity for some pre-game tailgating fun. The university is turning Drexel Park into a mini carnival so families can spread out to enjoy an afternoon under the trees, as they get ready for the Blazers’ season opener.
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Maggots with your steak
Today, with online journalism on newspaper websites, readers are able to go online, read the story, post a comment and, within minutes, their comment (thread) is answered by another reader. The bantering can follow a positive line or it can quickly move to having all the attributes of a barroom brawl.
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Why do some children live in abusive houses?
As I have written many times in this column, I grew up in a small town. My father worked at Moody Air Force Base for 30 years and as he would recollect while laughing, “I ate a fried egg sandwich for lunch every day of those 30 years.”
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Turning 18 before the election board
When I turned 18 my father took me down to the courthouse one evening to go before the Board of Registrars so I could be qualified to vote. I was called into the room before three men. I remember being nervous. They asked me questions about residency and being an American before I was given their stamp of approval.
- More Sandy Sanders Headlines
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Think before you answer
