Recently in the Chicago Tribune, results of a survey of people ages 18-30 showed that this group, our generation, is greatly motivated by our own self-centered greed. In addition it also said we lack honesty and a strong moral base.

Seriously though, it’s a bit tedious seeing our generation being put down by every survey and report that comes out these days. I, for one, am sick and tired of being put down, especially by the loathsome “baby boomers,” the most narcissistic and self-centered generation to come down the pike.

The “boomers” have labeled us as rootless miscreants, without once thinking the reason why we may be rootless at all has to do with the fact that we are their children. While mom and dad were off getting matching divorces and having power lunches, we were at home being raised by cartoons and MTV. The advertisers, the TV execs, all of those who have given us the attitude that “greed is good” are part of the yuppie generation. You yuppies have shown us the way of greed, and now you complain because we’ve learned all you have to teach us and we’ve created new and better ways to outdo you. Face the facts: you’re scared.

The yuppie generation is getting older, and our generation is becoming the one with the power. They are faced not only with their own mortality, but with the task of taking a giant step out of the public eye. Have you noticed the abundance of 60s memorabilia, and the millions of articles, TV shows, and other various media on the baby-boomers? Theirs is a generation of vanity, that prides itself on looking at its reflection in the mirror. The only trouble is, while they’ve been looking at themselves, we’ve been looking to the heroes they force-fed us for guidance.

Take the issue of drug use—please. In the 60s, the yuppies opened up a Pandora’s box, and now they seek to close it with meaningless words. They wreaked havoc and destruction upon the environment, and now they want us to conserve. The list goes on and on of issues the supposedly greater generation has begun, flung onto our laps, and then pointed the finger at us for doing. If we are a generation without morals, it is because we have not been given exposure to them: one cannot learn what one has no knowledge of.

The situation, however is far from hopeless. Don’t believe what the newspapers say. Don’t believe what some fat 45-year-old who talked to 1,000 members of a generation of millions has to say about us. Believe in yourselves, because when it comes right down to it, we are the ones who are going to inherit this earth. And, like it or not baby-boomers, WE are going to be the ones who make it better.

The bottom line is, ignore the yuppies, throw them a mirror and let them lose themselves in their own monumental self-importance. It is up to us now, to prove them wrong, to prove we can rise above their labeling of us, to prove we aren’t the greedy, moralless people they label us as. It is time to rise above words and to take action, not against them, but for us.