Generating good

I just heard it again on a talk show. A newspaper editor, commenting on President Obama’s history-making statement yesterday, called support for marriage equality “generational.”  With my generation coming out as the losers who are against.  I beg to differ.

Yes, I’ve seen--and cringed at--all the photos of those of a certain age, pursed-lipped, their faces hate-contorted, waving Tea Party or anti-choice placards, cheering from the front pages of the papers. Maybe those were cheap shots. Maybe there were just as many earnest young haters in the crowd. Who knows?

What I know is this: my generation sat in at segregated lunch counters and marched for civil rights. My generation protested a war--the first in a series, as it has turned out--that threw away the lives of young people for dubious reasons.  My generation worked for gender equality and women’s reproductive rights.  

Hatred is always an equal opportunity handicap. I would assume, in fact, that the bullies who make life intolerable for gay teens are of a generation that prefers to see itself in a quite different light. No generation gets it all right. But I’m standing up for mine and the people in it who have tried to add their lives to the human evolution toward justice, human dignity, and respect. We’re all evolving.