Can you believe it? Obama and Oprah, the two African-American faces of corporate America, delivered national commencement speeches yesterday. Unbelievable in the hubris they show because they are so responsible, along with the majority of voting adults in this nation, for the rot the pandemic has exposed. Theirs is a continuous act of betrayal, while Trump, Bush I and Bush II, Reagan, and Republican politicians in general are truly reprehensible and destructive. Here is my commencement speech because I am an arrogant Boomer, too, but my speech is one where I am essentially saying, I'm sorry. We suck. You are fine. If anything, I don't understand why you young people are not more angry at us bad parents.
Hi, kids. I don't know how many of you know it, but you have the right to be angry at anyone still alive who was born at any time from 1910 forward. Each generation, from the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation (my parents' generation), and Baby Boomers (my generation) screwed you and put you into the position you face today. We, your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, are the enemy of what is good. We are the enemy of what you need to live your lives. We have no right to lecture you. You are correct to say, "Ok, Boomer," or "Ok, Old Person," because the aforementioned generations won't give up any convenience to do anything to help you or the planet. We are the ones who voted for Clinton or Trump, while you voted for Bernie. We are the ones who keep voting for our own selfish, short term interests, and then have the gall to tell you how you are being selfish or lacking courage for rejecting our latest Democratic Party presumptive nominee, Joe Biden, or rejecting the most lazy, incompetent, appealing-to-ignorance, and hateful president nearly ever, Donald Trump.
So, yeah, kids, congratulations for graduating into a pandemic on top of the four existential issues of our time, of which you are right to see and fight against, and which your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents are so terribly wrong in continuing to allow to fester and grow. Just in case you may be wondering, to make sure we are talking about the same things, the four existential crises are: climate chaos, systemic inequality (where the rich literally got much richer while your stupid parents lost their jobs and listen to Trump tweets or whatever bullshit is spewed on MSNBC and CNN), no medical insurance for tens of millions after Obamacare was passed, and hundreds were dying every day for lack of medical care or insurance before the pandemic, and student debt, which will mean you will be servicing debt instead of accumulating capital--but oh, your parents will be demanding you pay more payroll taxes in the next ten years to fund their Social Security and Medicare. And now our Earth Mother has tired, too, of waiting for your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents to get their acts together. So, Mother Earth gave us all a virus that our dogs and cats don't seem to get. It just kills us humans. There are more viruses and bacteria coming from Mother Earth, which some call Gaia. And when we think about it, just saying Gaia and Mother Earth is really the only religion anyone needs. We don't need to go into the hate factories of organized religion at all. In fact, just saying the Earth is a living organism, just as we are, is a better religion to believe in than the stupid, hateful, destructive Sky God religions, which essentially say, "Slash and burn away. For when you die, you ascend into the sky." The sooner we realize every religion is an unnecessary people divider, the better. As for me, I don't really know if there is a First Cause or anything resembling a god, but that is so much less important than how we treat each other, and so much less important than the failure of my generation and older to treat you and your siblings as if you are all our children.
Oh, and that last president, Obama, and his Internet commencement speech? Don't believe a word that guy says. He was part of the problem. Just watch on YouTube the portion of Michael Moore's film about Trump's election, and what led to it, and particularly the scene where Obama comes to Flint, Michigan, where the residents, mostly poor, and majority African-American, still have lead in their water. You'll be amazed to see how this crisis was intentionally made against poor and African-American people, and how Obama not only didn't do anything, he lied to the people there, and told them it would be somehow okay to live with lead in their water. This on top of ordering the US Army to do bombing exercises on abandoned buildings there. The whole film is worth taking in, because it helps you see what I am leveling about with you--and how the ultimate enemy is corporate cable "news" of nearly any type. Anchorman 2 is right in so many ways that is worthy of 100 years of capitalist press criticism. Obama speaks pretty words and soaring, elegant rhetoric, sure. But, he is as bad a parent to the young of this country as anyone who has held office since FDR died in April 1945. Obama is actually worse than any Democratic predecessor, and worse than Republicans like Eisenhower and Nixon. This is because, as the number of corporations owning media in our nation drifted down to four or five altogether, the window of acceptable discourse has become more exulting of selfishness, division, hate, and grifting, summarized in the twin, but related phrases, "I've got mine" and "Get off my lawn."
And let me say this: I don't even blame you for not coming out to vote enough this year in the presidential primary, because, after all, you are just kids. We are the parents. We should have taken care of you. Instead, we suck. We suck like the parents of the 1960s "radical kids"--you know, the "radical" kids who were right back then about Vietnam and the need to confront and change racism in our society. And fun note: more of you, as a percentage, came out in 2020 than the Boomers who got the right to vote in 1972 or thereafter. So, yeah, funny to hear us lecture you about civic duty.
And let me say this: I don't even blame you for not coming out to vote enough this year in the presidential primary, because, after all, you are just kids. We are the parents. We should have taken care of you. Instead, we suck. We suck like the parents of the 1960s "radical kids"--you know, the "radical" kids who were right back then about Vietnam and the need to confront and change racism in our society. And fun note: more of you, as a percentage, came out in 2020 than the Boomers who got the right to vote in 1972 or thereafter. So, yeah, funny to hear us lecture you about civic duty.
Notwithstanding all this ranting, I think it is probably best for you to not yell at your parents at the graduation party or dinner this evening. Just ignore them. You can even tell them to screw off and be done with it all for the day. Let them justify you by saying you had an emotional day. What you should consider doing is emailing Biden's campaign and the DNC and saying you won't vote for Biden or most any Democrat or Republican. If you want to lay it on them even more, you have the right to tell them they had better freaking listen and change their ways now. After all, your stupid parents who are Democrats--don't get me started about your stupid Trump supporting or Republican supporting parents--say they will vote "Blue no matter who." Tell the DNC and Biden they should accept a left, progressive labor leader like Sara Nelson, the flight attendants union leader, for VP. Even Forbes' magazine sees her as VP material. Go ahead, look her up. You know how to do that. Your parents don't. In fact, your Democratic Party voting parents should pretty much accept Howie Hawkins coming over from the Green Party to be VP, and not care about the fact Howie doesn't wear a dress. Saying that is a way to start fighting back against the stupid lectures from old people who still don't understand what happened to them, let alone what they are continuing to do to you. You are going to have to scare them, as that is the only language we older people understand.
Kurt Vonnegut, the writer, wanted us to be nicer to each other. But, this is not that time. The truth is this: Your parents and up have been bad parents. They have not been nice to you. Not at all. In fact, they can claim they love you, but they hate you. You see it in their memes they send around on FB, and what they said at cocktail parties or bar-b-ques. They said how dumb you are. How entitled you are. How selfish you are. All while sending around memes that are hoaxes, lies, and hateful statements, which, when you say they are wrong, they don't even know how to research the Internet to find out. They laugh at you for not knowing how to use a rotary phone, as if they know how to use an abacus or ride a chariot. And all this while not knowing how to use the Internet and coming to you to put up the wallpaper on their cellphones.
Kurt Vonnegut, the writer, wanted us to be nicer to each other. But, this is not that time. The truth is this: Your parents and up have been bad parents. They have not been nice to you. Not at all. In fact, they can claim they love you, but they hate you. You see it in their memes they send around on FB, and what they said at cocktail parties or bar-b-ques. They said how dumb you are. How entitled you are. How selfish you are. All while sending around memes that are hoaxes, lies, and hateful statements, which, when you say they are wrong, they don't even know how to research the Internet to find out. They laugh at you for not knowing how to use a rotary phone, as if they know how to use an abacus or ride a chariot. And all this while not knowing how to use the Internet and coming to you to put up the wallpaper on their cellphones.
You have a right to say to your parents, I'm tired of how you keep hurting me, our country, and our planet for your convenience. So, yeah, email Biden's campaign. Email the DNC. Look up your local congress critter and US senator representatives and email them, too. You have the right to tell them you are sick of their bullshit. You are sick of their being bad parents, and you are not going to reward them with your vote. Maybe that will wake them the hell up from their arrogant, ignorant, and, above all, selfish stupor. But, hey, once again. Congratulations. You are now free to start servicing your student debt. Free to figure out how to pay for health insurance. Free to be you and me. Do your own thing. My God. I am so very sorry I didn't do more for you.
I suck, too.
I suck, too.
