Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 64

fln mTU anchor says she and her peers are set to take ouer is the new driving force behind established grassroots organizations. Through my reporting at MTV, I witnessed the activism of the radical People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Even though many people dislike PETA's tactics, few would dispute its impact: Look at the stir Aretha Franklin's politically incorrect sable made at last month's inauguration. Last spring, the nation watched as thousands of young men and women stormed Washington, D.C., for a pro-choice rally. And over the past two summers it was always young people I saw working the booths for Greenpeace on the Lollapalooza concert tours.

Clearly, this generation is making its voice heard. The hope is somebody's listening. I represent an age group that has been accused of being apathetic, smug and lost. The truth is that our generation, as a whole, is none of those things. We have not been uninterested or unintelligent.

Just uninspired. Today's young people are coming into power and starting the "Re-generation." The regeneration of ourselves, of politics and of this country. Preconceived notions about our generation have resulted in a lot of name-calling. We are called the "MTV Generation," the generation lobotomized by television. But just because I watch Axl Rose doesn't mean I don't read Arthur Schlesinger.

The most popular misnomer is Don't call them 'baby busters': Hleet six representatiues of the post-baby boom generation, young adults taking the arts, business and education into the 21st century. Profiles, Pages 5-6. We're tired of feeling disenfranchised, disconnected from our government, overshadowed by yuppies. But how did we get disconnected? Did thirtysomething reruns drive us deeper into the shadows? Did the idea of aligning ourselves with the baby boomers' "super-generation" make us disavow altogether our ties to our families and country? On MTV, Clinton talked about how he had been inspired to go into politics when he shook the hand of President Kennedy at the White House. That story reinforced what I've found by talking to people in our age group over the past year.

While our parents grew up during a time when people believed wholeheartedly in their elected representatives and trusted government to take care of "baby busters." Our generation is 40 million strong, hardly a group to be written off as "busters," and we're tired of being in the boomer shadow. It's bad enough that we can't forget the boomer excesses of the 70s and '80s, because we've been stuck with the check: the multibillion-dollar federal deficit. We also are not members of a "Generation a term that sticks us in some sort of nameless wasteland. There are too many young people in all fields coming on strong, making their mark, for that label to apply. The "slacker" tag, from a movie by that name, doesn't fit either.

We know we can't afford to slack off in the face of what we have inherited: unattainable first-house down payments, a life-threatening environment and that haunting deficit. Is A. a. It Ti" TTT1 TP I Jj jj. 1 1 UJl Jlu.H.JLi tl Indeed, one of President Bill Clinton's favorite lines resonates deep within us, because we felt it before he said it: We truly are the first U.S.

generation that could be worse off than the preceding generation. That fact has propelled many of us to be a pragmatic, hard-working bunch. We feel as if we have to work twice as hard to do half as well as our parents. We're the first "latch-key generation," and more of us come from divorced families than any previous generation. No other generation has been forced to rely on its own resources more than ours.

Yes, we grew up in a media-frenzied, fragmented time that makes us a diverse group, not easy to pigeonhole. But our generation is starting to assume power and make changes, in the Establishment as well as the anti-Establishment. Not only does this generation define itself with an alternative style of music, but that music dominates the charts and, in turn, the bank accounts of the major record labels. In addition, a new generation of young people them, we grew up differently. We learned about initiatives like the New Deal and the Great Society in history class.

To us they had the same impact as the War of 1812. Unlike older people, we didn't experience these innovative programs directly. During our lifetime, we had 12 years of hands-off Republican presidents who said government should not meddle in people's lives. At the same time, we begged for a president to get the nation back on track. Our experiences have made many of us grim.

My first memory of a president was of Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. My mom never let my dad live down the fact that he had voted for Tricky Dick. Then came Gerald Ford, whom I was familiar with as an avid golfer and bumbling Saturday Night Live character. Jimmy Carter seemed like a weak president who was bullied by a fanatic Islamic leader. Ronald Reagan enjoyed support from many young people, but his distrust of big government and scandals within his administration reinforced our already well-developed cynicism.

Pfp ire labitha i Soren But that doesn't mean we don't care about bettering things. Activism wasn't invented by the boomers, and it didn't disappear with the Vietnam War. The Re-generation already is making an impact: Students all across the country Continued on Page 7 4 USA WEEKEND February 26-28, 1993.