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An era passes and idealism fades, following the assassination of three iconic heroes ...

"Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot."
– From the musical "Camelot"

Boomers didn't realize it at the time, but the idealism that so many of us felt in the 1960s would prove to be a fleeting moment in our lives and in American history. Back then, we thought anything was possible. After all, we sent a man to the moon just because a president said that we could. But as we passed from puberty to adulthood, we experienced a reality that was something very different from what we had imagined.

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy on June 6, 1968, served notice to all who didn't know it already that Camelot, a period of time imbued with promise and hope, was over. Some historians say that the mythical period ended with John F. Kennedy's death in 1963. But a generation coming-of-age continued to be inspired by the words and actions of Martin Luther King, Jr. and JFK's heir apparent, Robert. Whatever idealistic enthusiasm remained, however, was dashed with the combined murders of Martin on April 4, 1968, and Robert two months later.

By 1972, a generation once filled with naive optimism was now suspicious, skeptical, even cynical. Unlike their parents who had implicitly trusted their leaders and institutions, boomers were confronted with the awful truth that two presidents had lied to them about the Vietnam War. The Watergate investigation had revealed a president so paranoid that he repeatedly broke the law and used government agencies in a frantic search to uncover imaginary demons.

One thing was known: If you stood up for anything, you oftentimes paid a penalty.

By the late '70s, boomers were not only disillusioned but coming under the pressures that normally accompany getting older. Their focus shifted. They were getting married, starting families, buying homes and succumbing to the pressures of keeping up with the neighbors. Later they would be called "sell-outs." Still, the majority of boomers continued to be more liberal in their views, even if they couldn't get out to protest a midnight execution or another preemptive war.

When the dust settled in the '80s, an inevitable backlash against the self-indulgent "do your own thing" generation arose from those hankering for more social structure and definition. Some boomers felt lost without religion, the government or mom and dad telling us what to do. We had to think on our own without the measuring tools (comfortable absolutes) lost when black-and-white thinking became unfashionable. "Moral relativism" was a term that was bandied about, but for those trying to keep together a marriage (with escalating divorce rates) and raise children while holding down a job that required a 60-hour week, there was little time to conceptualize a new moral paradigm.

Nonetheless, our patterns of thinking had forever changed, as evidenced by a 1995 "Time" magazine cover story about the emergence of a field of study called "emotional intelligence," which lists self-awareness and self-management as a few of its hallmarks.

The Women's Movement Stumbles
Women are now doctors, lawyers, cops, pilots and sports announcers. But in 2006, only 10 of the Fortune 500 companies were run by women. Decades after boomers fought for equal opportunity, a glass ceiling that supports the upper tier of a good-old-boy network in corporate America remains in place.

A few women persevered and broke through, but many others opted out, deciding a corporate lifestyle was too restrictive and demanding to maintain a balanced life. Searching for alternative ways of making a living, women have increasingly struck out on their own and become entrepreneurs. According to the Women's Financial Network, women start businesses at two times the rate of men, even though they are less likely than men to successfully access venture capital pools when they take the plunge.

In the '60s, when women sought to have it all simultaneously – an understanding spouse, children and a successful career – they idealistically imagined they would have a support system composed of corporate or government daycare centers, mothers-in-law who lived nearby and flexible work hours. That has not turned out to be the reality. Millions of working mothers, whether single or married, regardless of race or region, found themselves without any real support. Husbands were reluctant to give up traditional roles and continued to have the same expectations of their working wives that they did of their non-working mothers. Childcare was either unaffordable or unavailable, and extended families members typically lived in another state. As a result, the children of boomers increasingly became known as "latch-key kids."

Women were also forced to make choices that men never had to face. Those who chose to put careers on a back burner to have children, found that their "power years" had come and gone. If they put having kids on the back burner to get a career under way, they found that the fertile years were waning. The new social standard begged for a restructuring of how couples negotiate pursuing careers, while at the same time raising children. Corporations in the United States have been extraordinarily slow in offering daycare centers in their office complexes and accommodating the reality facing today's working mothers.

Yet boomer women forever changed the face of working America. From 1950 (four years after boomer women starting being born) to 1999, the increase in the percentage of women among the work force has been startling: U.S. female architects nearly quadrupled to 16 percent, the percentage of women economists nearly tripled to 51 percent, women lawyers went up sevenfold to 29 percent and women now comprise 50 percent of all journalism jobs. And today over 60 percent of all women over 16 are working.

Skeptics say that women are no better off today than they were 50 years ago before so-called feminists began to challenge the status quo, but tell that to women who now have the opportunity to achieve financial independence.

Civil Rights: King's Dream Is Still Just a Dream
Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of the bus was a symbolic gesture for what became the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans wanted to level the playing field so that they could have the same opportunities that whites took for granted. Minorities have advanced since the '60s and '70s, but a 2004 study out of Duke University entitled "The Lives and Times of the Baby Boomers" reveals that "racial inequality (still) persists among the boomers." African Americans and Hispanics are still showing up in disproportionate numbers on welfare rolls and prison rosters. According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, though segregation had been waning since the '70s, it "remains particularly high especially between Blacks and Whites."

Perhaps the advancements are still the exception. But just 34 years after the passage of The Civil Rights Act, most Americans have expressed a willingness to vote for an African American to be President of the United States — good news for Barak Obama, the senator from Illinois now considered to be a serious presidential candidate.

There are other signs that the times have changed. Isaiah Washington, a principal black character on "Grey's Anatomy" wasn't fired for kissing a Chinese character on the show, but rather for allegedly slurring a gay colleague on the set. On another front, Rap and Hip Hop have become forums for protest and have the natural gravity that draws white and black kids together. Once again, music, the common language of the boomer generation, is an artistic expression that can unite voices across a racial divide.

If the Civil Rights movement and the women's movement shook the political foundations of public policy, the cultural shifts would have effects that will be at least as lasting — if not more dramatic. These days, we aren't making jokes about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll; and men and women would never look at each other the same again, no matter how hard we tried.

Coming up next week in our boomer legacy series: the cultural effects of the '60s and '70s.

Last week's installment: Blowin' in the Wind.

 

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