HerbH: We’re Going Downhill Fast

43 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

• 

  misc on May 05 at 7:13 a.m.

  Relax. The kids are alright.

• 

  Arpie on May 05 at 7:31 a.m.

  “Why can’t they be like we were?- perfect in every way. What’s the matter with kids today?” Can you name the musical?

• 

  Truly on May 05 at 8:02 a.m.

  Arpie the musical was Bye Bye Birdie.

  Have a great day!

• 

  LukeB on May 05 at 8:06 a.m.

  Herb forgot to add something - “Hey kids! Get off my lawn!”

• 

  toadman on May 05 at 8:27 a.m.

  “Is this country better/worse off today than when you were a kid?”

  HA! Herb, you’re a funny guy. This country is better off now than it was when I was a kid back in the 80s. Remember the 80s? I do. It was a dark time, full of scary commies and Iran-Contra affairs.

  “…because unless we start caring about what happens here instead of who buys from whom cheaper, we’re toast!”

  Now, this is sensible. You’re not eluding to Obama’s recent neo-protectionist idea of closing over-seas tax loopholes for corporations creating more incentives to hire AMERICAN workers instead of divesting our labor to the cheapest market overseas? Maybe you are.. who knows. You’re pretty subtle that way Herb.

  ;-)

• 

  LukeB on May 05 at 8:37 a.m.

  “…because unless we start caring about what happens here instead of who buys from whom cheaper, we’re toast!”

  That’s a very non-capitalist thing to say, Herb.

• 

  toadman on May 05 at 8:41 a.m.

  Shhhhh! Luke! Quiet. The indoctrination is almost complete on this one…don’t spoil it….

  ;-)

• 

  brentandrews on May 05 at 8:43 a.m.

  I dunno Herb, with all due respect, it was your generation which spawned Richard Nixon, the Cold War, and the War on Drugs. You allowed things to get out of control. You legislated and acted out based not on reality, but fear. Your generation brought us the CIA, Herbert Hoover and CointelPro. I’d totally rather have a “socialist” Obama in charge, than those creeps. Your generation allowed the government to lead us to 20 million marijuana arrests. Not to mention all the missiles you guys had pointed at each other. I think the world is generally a safer place than it was in my early years. We’re close to breaking the back of racism, and ending the War on Drugs; we’re not 30 seconds from someone pushing the red button. I think it’s lucky times have changed, in America, and I think that can be credited to new blood in the leadership pool, and a younger-thinking, more progressive politics. Please don’t take this personally. I don’t blame the War on Drugs on you, for Pete’s sake - I like you.

• 

  Sisyphus on May 05 at 8:57 a.m.

  What an utter lack of personal responsibility, Herb. Your generation must be so proud of you.

• 

  LukeB on May 05 at 9:12 a.m.

  May I add Brent that it was his generation that spawned the outsourcing of America as well.

• 

  hhuseland on May 05 at 10:17 a.m.

  Actually, I don’t try to be subtle. It’s probably in the interpretation. I may confuse some from time to time, because I don’t adhere to a strict conservative approach, or what I call knee jerk reactions.

  Although it is obvious that I don’t believe in free trade, don’t read into my remarks what you think I said. First, I’m not thinking so much about political things as I am cultural. It seems respect for one another is way lacking than from years past. Oh, and J. Edgar Hoover was more my parents generation. People on a person to person level seem to lack the small courtesies that used to be common. When is the last time you saw a male open a door for a female? I’ve seen Guys go into a building ahead of their significant other, then let go the door so that it comes near to hitting their partner.

  Each political party has had their bad ones. You say Nixon, I say Carter. I am not am absolutist, so it is difficult to categorize me that way.

• 

  spokelooneh on May 05 at 10:25 a.m.

  Ah, the old generational war. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, for millenia.

  “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
  authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
  of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
  households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
  contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
  at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
  -attributed to Socrates.

• 

  Sisyphus on May 05 at 10:30 a.m.

  “When is the last time you saw a male open a door for a female?”—everyday, at the Borah Post Office. I open the door for men and women, old and young. I smile and nod. And most everyone does it for me. Same at the grocery store. It seems I must come here for the treatment you decry. How’s your mirror?

• 

  moscow_minidoka on May 05 at 10:41 a.m.

  “When is the last time you saw a male open a door for a female?”

  Everyday, when I go to the Coop. Friendly people hold the door for kids, women, men with their hands full, etc.

  Herb must live in CrankyTown, because I simply don’t see that sort of incivility in Moscow, not even among the supposedly “hoodlum” college-age kids.

• 

  hmoffsuite on May 05 at 11:15 a.m.

  Sis is very much right. This is a generational thing and difficult for the differing generations to be empathatic to the other. I am a member of Herb’s generation and can see things thru his eyes where many of you won’t. This County has changed measurably over the years and will continue to do so. As our values and views have been determined, we see things quite differently than you younger folks here. We see the burning of the American flag as disgraceful. You, the younger generation see it as an freedom of speech issue. We don’t. We remember the pledge of allegiance to the flag in classrooms as being a display of love of Country. Younger folks see it as being something else. Many of you weren’t even born when we put the man on the moon. The American pride was brimming over and we were a proud nation. Moments like that, we shall never forget and the current generation has likely never witnessed that sort of pride in America.

• 

  Cindy_H on May 05 at 11:59 a.m.

  I’ve got four sons. From the time they could open the door for themselves their father taught them to hold the door for ladies.
  I’m perfectly capable of opening my own doors, but courtesy is something to be admired and encouraged. I’ve watched the compliments my teenage sons receive when we’re out together.
  Courtesy isn’t dead. It just has to be taught.
  As to the rest, I do see things that worry me about this generation.
  Many young adults have a sense of entitlement and elevated self-esteem. They’ve been given too much and had too little required of them.
  No generation is blameless. There’s good and bad to be found in every era.
  When my 19-year-old son, with fire in his eyes, argues politics and religion with my husband, it gives me hope. It doesn’t matter if we agree or not. What matters is that he cares, he’s involved and he wants to make the world better.
  How can that be bad?

• 

  Sisyphus on May 05 at 12:21 p.m.

  Well said Cindy.

  “We see the burning of the American flag as disgraceful. You, the younger generation see it as an freedom of speech issue”—well actually it was nine very old farts in black robes that made this determination. And your tendency to paint with a very broad brush might be one of the things wrong with your generation that we seek to change. While Cindy correctly points out that courtesy is a learned trait, unfortunately bigotry and prejudice is also acquired from the previous generation. So I wouldn’t be too quick to pat yourselves on the back for keeping the faith. There’s good and bad in all ages.

  The pledge is still said in schools everywhere. Only your generation added the words “under God” as you did to the currency. I know the feeble, and now anachronistic, reasons for it but do you really think jingoism and religious symbolism is all you have to do to instill values into the next generation. Why are you blaming us for your failures?

• 

  spokelooneh on May 05 at 12:48 p.m.

  Hmmmm, well the Greatest Generation raised the Baby Boomer Generation, now didn’t they? Were they actually not so great?

  No. Every generation laments that the generation coming up behind it is lazy, disrespectful, unpatriotic, etc. Been happening since time immemorial. Doesn’t make it true.

• 

  toadman on May 05 at 2:07 p.m.

  “When is the last time you saw a male open a door for a female?”

  About five minutes ago when I came back from work, and I opened the door for a young lady.

  Herb…dude…it’s all gonna be ok, man. There’s still kindness in the world, really.

• 

  Stickman on May 05 at 2:16 p.m.

  Nice comment Cindy. And as Toad said, there still is kindness in the world.

• 

  brentandrews on May 05 at 4:41 p.m.

  Herb, I don’t know what I’d do without the writing produced by your generation, including some of my active heroes, the research they were doing before I was even born, their examples for presentation of facts, etc. I don’t mean to downplay what you’ve done or suggest it’s all been bad. Nixon helped re-open China to America’s positive political influence, for one thing. I rely on the ones who have come before, believe me. Some of us remember, and practice the old ways. I bet if I ran into Toadman at the store he’d let me go ahead of him if he had 50 things and I had one, for example. There’s still that kind of cool in the world.

• 

  hhuseland on May 05 at 5:15 p.m.

  It’s great that most of you see courtesy, where I don’t. That probably means it not near as much of a problem as I perceived.

« Back to Huckleberries Online

• ›Scanner traffic