The Worst Generation's war in America

I read an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette while I was home this weekend titled "The Worst Generation's war in Wisconsin". On one hand I found Ruth Ann's summary of what is going on in Wisconsin (with regards to the protests of public employees) dead-nuts accurate and insightful, on the other, it was also convicting.

She refers to her generation (baby boomers born between 1945 and 1964) as "The Worst Generation" (a pun of "The Greatest Generation"). She sites former Clinton adviser Paul Begala (born 1961), as "the most self-centered, self-seeking, self-interested, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing generation" in US history. She asks: "Will the boomers finally step up, as their parents did, and do what's best for the next generation?" Ruth Ann says the question at the heart of the Wisconsin budget battle is a demand of things for ourselves without regard for the cost to our children or our less privileged peers. If you're interested, read the rest of the article - it's really good.

I wish Richard Winters (Band of Brothers) or William Wallace (Braveheart) could just come out of the past and slap each and every public servant employee chanting that they will "overcome" the voters and tax payers of Wisconsin. Though I'd still be happy seeing newly elected governor Scott Walker do just that.

Even in writing this (given the rant against teachers that I just deleted) I am convicted of the same thing that this article convicted me of. Americans have one incredible sense of entitlement. Teachers somehow have a sense of entitlement that they can be glorified baby-sitters who work 180 days/year yet complain that they aren't paid enough and work too hard. (If you want to see what hard work is take a trip to one of the blue-collar steel mills in Pittsburgh after a piece of equipment goes down...that's hard work). I somehow have a sense of entitlement that I shouldn't have to pay a government $24k/year in taxes which supports these people. Really, neither of us are right, regardless of how lazy or how much of a workaholic we are. Really, both of us deserve to be born homeless in some impoverished nation, sold into slavery, be beaten for years, thrown in prison, never told the gospel, and to eternally burn in hell...that's what we are entitled to. Yet, I can't even keep my focus away from ranting against teachers and public "service" employees long enough to make it through this paragraph because I, like "The Worst Generation" public service employees in Wisconsin, feel that I am entitled to something that "I've worked for".

I want to take this time to simply acknowledge my (and your) need for a savior, renounce my entitlement to anything but death, and thank God for providing not only that savior in Jesus Christ, but also thank Him for all of the incredible gifts that he has given me...and in His irony, even teacher friends.