With all due respect to Teddy Kennedy, here's hoping that his death will finally puncture the balloon of pomposity that's floated over the baby boom generation for the past 40 years.
The 77-year-old Kennedy, who died of brain cancer on Wednesday, was the last of a political dynasty that the New York Times described as "one of the most storied families in American politics."
That dynasty, referred to so cloyingly by baby boomers as Camelot, included a president and attorney general (later a presidential hopeful), both of whom died young at the hands of assassins, further inflating the mythology around them.
Don't get me wrong. Jack, Bobby and Teddy Kennedy all made significant contributions to American public life. In the end, although he was the least revered of the three, Teddy's accomplishments were the most significant.
He never rose above senator, but with 46 years in office Teddy was one of the longest serving in U.S. history. His legislative record was voluminous; Kennedy put his signature on more than 300 bills.
Kennedy cast a long shadow over the Democrats; his endorsement of Barack Obama put the final nails in Hillary Clinton's coffin.
Often his political successes were overshadowed by personal turmoil. The Chappaquiddick affair in 1969, where he was responsible for the drowning death of a young campaign worker and waited 10 hours to report it, haunted Kennedy for the rest of his life.
His shortcomings didn't matter to baby boomers across North America, because more than anything, he reminded them of their youth. He was a symbol of their self-proclaimed (and never realized) promise as the generation that would change the world and usher in a new era of peace and love and universal harmony.
Or so they keep telling the rest of us. The boomers, that generation born between 1946 and the late 1950s and came of age in the late 1960s and 1970s, are also the most self-involved in history. There are roughly 75 million of them in the U.S. and six million here in Canada.
Those of us who came after them had to spend our 20s and 30s constantly hearing about how the Sixties were the most magical time in modern history and every major event since then has been a pale anticlimax.
The music was better. The politics were more idealistic. Civil rights. Feminism. Anti-war protests. Blah blah blah.
Sometimes it seems, even as they approach retirement age, boomers just can't let go.
David Mills, author of 10,000 Days: A Call To Arms for the Baby Boom Generation, says in his blog that Kennedy's death should be a wake-up call to everyone over 50 who's lost the idealism of the 1960s. He argues that they still have 10,000 days left to dominate the world.
There's nothing wrong with staying vital as you age, but maybe it's time for boomers to pass the torch. For the past 40 years, you've been telling the rest of the world that your youthful idealism is what makes you so special.
Look at this way: you're not the kids anymore. After all, Barack Obama, 47, and Stephen Harper, 50, aren't boomers. They're too young.
Andrew Hanon is a columnist at the Edmonton Sun. 24 hours' Bill Tieleman will return to this spot next Tuesday.
