"Hope I die before I get old."

The Who's Roger Daltrey didn't and neither did most of the baby boom generation.

It seems as if a bunch of them were present on Tuesday for the Newton County Board of Commissioners meeting so they could take a stand against any tax increase.Look at the picture of the meeting that ran in the newspaper on Wednesday and is with the online story about the meeting at covnews.com.

Now imagine them with sunny bronze tans, skimpy clothes, some pot and flying discs. Takes some work, I know, but give it a try.

These are the folks who made narcissism into a life-style. It worked because their parents and grandparents had built the best public schools, libraries, colleges and universities and research facilities, anywhere. It was the basis for a technological revolution.

Now, fast forward from the best of everything in the 1960s and 1970s to present day.

Terrible schools?

Must be the teachers fault!

Crumbing roads and bridges?

Why, it must be the inspectors' fault!

Terrorist threats?

Must be Islam's fault!

It's never the fault of baby boomers!

How could it possibly have anything to do with their failure to contribute something back?

With the world built by their parents and grandparents crumbling around them, the baby boom generation still shirks responsibility.

When asked to pay less taxes than they did last year, but a few dollars more per person here in Newton County, they refused.

It's amazing what a difference 50 years makes.

The self-indulgent youth of yesteryear have become the self-indulgent Republicans and Democrats of today.
They continue to consume what they did not build, and expect it to be available as a right and refuse to help maintain it.

On behalf of all of our ancestors, from all walks of life, who made the United States the greatest nation on earth with hard work and paying taxes, I am deeply ashamed of us, each and every one.

Patrick Durusau is a Covington resident whose columns usually run on Fridays.