Millennials and Aretha FRANKLIN -
The local radio wingnut talk show hosts consist of one Boomer with 30 years on the radio and two Millennials. All three are complete wingnuts, of course, and one might think that institutional strategy would be for the Boomer to be in the role of mentor, but the Boomer has historical context and has some grasp of norms and limits, while the boy and the girl are Faux/Breitbart robots, and fairly often the two gang up on him even to the point of sometimes accusing him of being a Lib mole!1
That would be in the sense of Tricky Dick being a Lib just because he had a concept of what History might say (unlike Shrub & SHITLER), didn't destroy the tapes because of that (don't know if he worried about destroying evidence), did some Lib things like the EPA, and cornily *marched in time* when Hail to the Chief played. (These are PARAMETERS of observing *some* norms.)
So the Millennials turned over the mic to the Boomer a few days ago when Ms FRANKLIN was fading for him to explain WHY this lady was a big deal, not to mention WHO she was, and did again when she died. An aside, this Boomer is as big a dork as Tricky Dick, so he was just as clumsy about showing how much he knows about Black culture, literally/actually saying, "Her voice, I don't know if it was her being Black and BIG WOMAN, that she could BELT it out." Yes, he said big-and-Black.
And the girl said, "So she was ALMOST as big a deal as Michael JACKSON?!1 Well, but nobody could be as big as Michael JACKSON!1"
*********** That said, I've got to yield a bit on generational grounds. There are other cultures and generations that were grounded in study and reverence of their antecedents. Not ours. I heard one (GenX?) at work say when Jackie KENNEDY died, "Gosh, there was *NOTHING* on t.v. all weekend except non-stop stuff about that lady!1 I'm sure she was a big deal, but JEEZ!1"
And I can't give a pass to us Boomers, since if there was anybody who thought we would bust all norms of the past and instantly snap a Crystal City into being, along the lines of "If I were king of the world...", it was us.
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