Generation Y, I love you, but you are undermining America’s health and democracy in your typical devil-may-care lifestyle.  Since you were in college, you have had the poorest voting percentage of any generation, and now that you are roving the streets without jobs, you disdain the mask and social distancing, because it makes you less bold and sexy and lowers your chances to hook-up.

Immediately I have to qualify this reckless generalization by saying many of the Gen Y’s I taught over the past decade have been responsible citizens, although their individual voting records are not known to me. I have always had this bone to pick with curious and open-minded students at the university where I taught, that they were not turning out to vote when we needed them. How about 2016, for example?

Like most non-voters you would whine your puny individual votes were a mere drop in the ocean that would hardly be noticed. How about Michigan in 2016, my dear rationalizers? You wanted to change the world, but you couldn’t  start by filling out a ballot?

Now I hear you are frequenting the bars and beaches from Missouri to Florida, bulking up the coronavirus hospitalizations, ICU beds, even death statistics. I know you are reputed to be invulnerable or at least resistant to the virus, but did you not think how you might transmit the disease to your elders? Did you decide the science was a hoax after your required biology, health or phys-ed classes?

I am scolding a statistical construct, a Generation that has been caught on camera mingling in public places open-faced. I apologize to my former students who are trying to redeem their generation’s reputation by practicing all the recommendations of the CDC. Some of you are probably emergency health responders, making the supreme sacrifice for the rest of us hand-washers.  Thank you.

The rest of you, you know who you are. You worked hard for a college degree or a professional license, found yourself unemployed, gathered up your life savings and drove to the beaches, or prowled the night clubs or threw a CoVid Party. What were you thinking? Were you trying to prove that a college degree bought you credentials without wisdom? Your cynical uncle already knew that.

Well, I’ve had my rant, which is all I have left, now that I am retired. I am often proud you, but when the subject of voting or social distancing comes up, I am in near despair for General Y. I would like you to show the folks over 40 how  much you have learned, but you keep showing up unmasked in all the wrong places. I still hope to see you masked, social-distanced, and standing in line to vote on November 3.

That would surely make my Election Day.