rich quatrone | no apology!

NO APOLOGY!

let’s get something straight.
i’m a full-fledged member of the
60s generation!
The Generation!
not generation x or double x
or even xxx.
No!
i graduated from high school in 1965
and graduated from college in 1969.
i am completely, unapologetically
a complete product of the crazy, wonderful,
mad, hopeful, imaginative, Imaginative,
love-crazed, liberating, generous, brave,
exciting, pure, unadulterated, unexpurgated,
committed, dreaming, dreamful 60s!
the generation that fought for african americans,
women, kids, foreigners, the generation that ended,
ENDED!!! the vietnam war, the generation that kicked
nixon out of office, the generation of martin luther king,
malcolm x, john kennedy, robert kennedy, medgar evers,
the black panters, the weather underground, angela davis,
william kuenstler, bob dylan, the beatles, joan baez,
you name it, you name them, any and all, revolutionaries,
dreamers, fighters.
and us, we, i? we inhaled it, ate it, were eaten by it,
entirely consumed by love and truth and justice
and the will to fight the motherfuckers who pushed
fear and hated on us and the world.
did we lose? NO!! they killed us, murdered us,
lied about us, tricked us, all of it.
but they did not kill us!!
we are here, 60 years old, 65, 70 years old.
you think we’re “senior citizens,” that shitty,
terrible, bullshit, castrating, condescending term.
you think we’re only good for endless commercials
about medicine, illness, hospitals, “senior citizen centers,”
and the rest of it, all of it denying our power, our wisdom,
our endless libidinous energy and courage.
but you’re wrong, totally full of shit.
we are here alive and well.
waiting for some generation, ANY GENERATION
to try to match us! waiting for any generation
to join us!!!