SOCIETY
Boomers, X, Millennials, Z — “Where Were You When *It* Happened?”
Every generation has one question to reflect on where they were when their world changed forever
I distinctly remember how conversation changed after 9/11. In the days and weeks after the towers fell, when we all tired of using the list of new words that had been thrust into the lexicon — terrorism, Al Qaeda, jihad, Ground Zero, anthrax — and we were exhausted from teaching our friends and family the difference between Arabs and Muslims, talk turned to JFK. Yes, the president. The Boomers knew that 9/11 would change the world, and the only event in their lives that they could be compared it to was the assassination of President Kennedy. Throughout that school year, students across the country were tasked with the same interview assignment: “Ask your parent where they were when they found out that JFK had been shot.”
Every generation has one question that prompts reflection on where they were when their world changed forever. For the Boomers, it is not “Where were you when the Vietnam War started?” It is not “Where were you during the Summer of Love or Woodstock?” It’s not really even “Where were you when Nixon resigned?” These, too, were once-in-a-generation events: the start of a war that drafted 2.2…
