Xchoboomer

A year in review from the perspective of this xchoboomer…

The devastating earthquake in Haiti began the year and spewed horrible images of human suffering and carnage that are simply unforgettable. Images that unfortunately are ingrained into the consciousness of us all. Baby Boomers, X’r, and the millennials. More so then hurricane Katrina, this may have been the one world event that actually impacted the millennials into action as many of them who are now of age volunteered or donated via  text messages or other means in large numbers.

Health care reform became a reality in March that will have an impact on generations to come. It was an act that caused much emotion from people as they were fed a slew of misinformation. The perceived “socialization” of health care seemed to carry an evil connotation, especially to the baby boomer generation as McCarthyism is programmed into their psyche. This played a role in the “public” option being dropped from the reform in order to get it pushed through the House and Senate which will be attributed as a failure of the Obama administration.

The BP oil spill in April in the Gulf of Mexico was an event that angered us all. Unlike the Haiti Earthquake, it was an event that we felt hopeless about and their wasn’t much that any generation could do about it. This dragged on well into the summer and reeked havoc on the Gulf Coast and undermined the lively hoods of baby boomers to the millennials.

In July, the United States and Russia swapped prisoners out of the blue in a story that brought back images of cold war era spies, espionage, and feelings that many baby boomers and X’rs thought were long gone. I wasn’t sure if I should crawl under my desk as we were taught in elementary school in the early 80′s nuclear fire drills. I doubt the millennials felt the significance of this story and probably just conjured up a plot for the fourth Bourne movie.

In late July, WikiLeaks released thousands of documents relating to the Afghan War which started a new conversation on the freedom of speech in the new information age and the balance of national security and transparency in government. Claiming to have over 250,000 cables of American Diplomats from the mid 1960′s to 2010, WikiLeaks released many of these which caused much embarrassment for the United States government to keep its diplomatic conversations secure. In what seemed to be a smear campaign by the U.S government, the leader of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was accused of rape and was forced to turn himself in as InterPol closed in on him. This has interested each of our generations as we all have a stake in the outcome.

In August, Kagan was seated on the Supreme Court. This was the second appointment of the Obama administration and will truly be the President’s legacy well past his term and affect future generations to come.

Also in August, President Obama addressed the country from the Oval office and announced the end of combat operations in Iraq. Although this was merely a symbolic “mission accomplished” , it signified the turning of a page to refocus energies on the economy and the Afghan war which was good news to the X’rs and echo boomers as they are the ones serving in Iraq and trying to find jobs.

In October, a federal judge ordered that the policy of “Dont Ask Dont Tell” stop being enforced. Although it would take some weeks of politicking from judges, Congress, and the President to finally repeal the law in December, it is the end of an era and a victory for civil rights and will affect X’rs and Y’rs alike as well as future generations to come.

Also in October, the Chilean miners were rescued after months of being trapped deep underground. It was an event that the Facebook’r generation watched in their news feeds in real time as the miners came up one by one and people seemed to be inspired to post status updates. It was an event that reminded us on how resilient the human spirit is and scientifically was important because it was the longest time that humans have survived underground which was significant enough that NASA was closely involved and studying the rescue. And for everyone who was watching live as miner #2, aka Super Mario was brought up it was an inspiring scene to watch as he broke out into the Chilean national anthem and got the audience to chant along. That was pretty awesome.

November 2, the Democrats were shellacked in the mid-term elections as Independents swung there votes the way of the Tea Party. The Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives which forced Obama to extend Congress’s session almost till Christmas in order to push through a slew of legislation, including extending unemployment benefits by compromising for a $850 Billion tax cut to the wealthiest Americans,  before the Republicans can gridlock the Democrats with there control of the House.

In late November, the North Korean government attacked a South Korean Island which was the first land attack since the Korean war nearly 60 years ago. Baby Boomers such as my high school architectural teacher were especially interested in this story as many had fought or can actually remember the Korean War first hand. The MASH generation? Sorry, I didn’t get that show,  but loved the theme song. To many X’rs and millennials, this barely seemed to raise eyebrows and is somewhat expected of  the nutcase we’ve come to know as Kim Jong-Il.

These were some of the most important events that shaped 2010 from a cultural and political perspective, although there are countless others, especially from everyone’s personal perspectives. We all witness events and things that shape us and ultimately influence our generations on a daily basis. The world continues to get smaller, as information flows at the blink of an eye, and social graphs expand even to the baby boomers populous. Some of (you) are the events and things that shape and influence others. This year I was lucky enough to find a source of inspiration and I’m hoping I can tap into that in 2011.