The Picture Seen Around The World

Is a memorial service really the place to sit, giggle and take selfies?  Apparently so.

So here goes the old lady again.  My generation would have considered it inappropriate at best for what I assume was to be a solemn occasion.
My parents would have killed me on the spot.  It looks like Michelle might have had the same thing in mind.

This time I can't fault Obama alone. The British and Danish Prime Ministers are right there with him enjoying the jocularity.

It's no wonder I have such difficulty coping with the workings and non-workings of government today.  It is, one more time, a generational thing and perhaps a lot of what's going on is fault of mine.

My generation is called the Silent Generation and we produced the Boomers.  I'm guessing we were too silent, too permissive and the pendulum has yet to swing back.  Sometimes it does, but I'm beginning to wonder.  The Millennials, though, are showing some promise.

Those running things around the world these days are Generation X.  A rather innocuous name. They just go along doing their own thing without care or even awareness of what has been, what is and what may be while we Silent types are wondering what's wrong with them.

It's pretty simple really.  We didn't teach the Boomers the importance of our heritage, culture  and responsibility to it to the extent they felt it necessary to pass such knowledge on to their kids.  So today we have naivety trumping experience, self indulgence trumping duty and a total disregard for what others think.

The Millennials are catching on though.  Especially with the health care law where they're being ordered to shell out more so others need pay less.  Foul, they call and they're taking the Xers by surprise. Being cool is no longer cutting it.

Social media has changed the world, a world in which I am a dinosaur.  Those who created it, however, are savvy and oh so smart.  I have to continually adapt as they move the way we live into a universe almost beyond comprehension.

The isolationism and mediocrity being promoted by those Xers with a Socialist bent are going to be challenged by the Millennials.  Their motivation?  Money. That evil of evils. The money they're making from being able to capitalize on ideas and technology that's leaving so many of us behind.  I don't see them buying into Socialist ideology where it's their ideas and the rewards that those ideas have generated are taken for the good of those who can't or won't compete.

Maybe one day we'll see a return to coats and ties in better restaurants, no baseball caps no matter which direction they perch on a head and memorial services attended with the respect for the deceased that is deserved.

In the meantime three nations should be ashamed of their leaders for their inappropriate rudeness. I'm sorry that one of them is ours - but not surprised.