In early 1989, a friend of mine and I were staying up all night, smoking cigarettes and downing Coke, like we frequently did on weekend nights. We’d recently seen Russian glam-rock band Gorky Park on MTV, something that would have been impossible even a year prior. The Russians, as everyone knew, were Our Mortal Enemy! Except now here they were, stateside, getting kids all riled up with music, flying Russian and American flags side by side.

“So, basically,” my friend and I agreed that night, “a bunch of kids have done more to further the peace process between these two countries than any group of politicians.”

Hell, yeah! BANG!

I captured this entire discussion on tape, because that’s just how we did things back then. As I got older and re-watched it, I’d roll my eyes at our naivete. Oh, kids. You’re so idealistic. We’ve been threatening each other with nuclear armageddon since the end of World War II, a glam-rock band isn’t going to change that.

In November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. By December of 1991, the Soviet Union had dissolved.

Now, listen, I’m not about to lay the ending of the Cold War at the bedazzle-booted feet of Gorky Park, but now that I have a kid of my own — and we’re right back to staring down mean old Russia all over again, for christ’s sake — I’m starting to re-think about that idealism. Maybe a bunch of rockers did or did not influence the end of decades of useless military posturing, but it sure didn’t hurt. We could use some Gorky Park again.

Back then, my argument was that young people were the ones who appeared to making the biggest strides toward peace. The more I think about it, the more clear it is that the same is true today.

Not too long ago, an article and a video (which I could not watch) went viral showing a little boy in Yemen screaming, “Don’t bury me!” as doctors tried to remove shrapnel from his tiny body after a missile attack that hit near his home.

Putting myself in that boy’s father’s place, I’m trying to think what my response as a father would be toward the people who launched that missile.

Just kidding! I don’t need to think about it. I know exactly what it would be. Every parent knows what it would be. And that, children, is why we have war. That’s how hospitals end up getting blown up. Because if someone did that to my kid, I’m sorry, but I don’t have the forgiveness in me to let that go. Fortunately, I’m also a massive throbbing coward, so probably I’d just sit around being furious and hoping someone would blow up the people who did it.

In 1989, young people stood up and musicians rocked out and collectively said, “It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t want to get blown up by nuclear weapons. We have more in common than we do differences, so let’s work this shit out.” And for a time, it seemed we had. Yet here we are again, same old wars, same old social injustice. Is it any wonder there are a number of teens disappearing into their phones? Maybe we would have, too, if we’d had them. What evidence can we, the older generations, give to the younger ones that there’s reason to hope, and change is coming?

History is not on our side, Old People.

*

Sidebar: To the folks upset at “Millennial laziness” and whatever else: We are their parents and teachers and pastors and politicians. Someone taught them to (allegedly) be this way. So now whose fault is their “disrespectful, entitled attitude”? Who is it that fucked up their planet so goddamn badly to begin with? It sure wasn’t them. Who pulled off the greatest breach of public trust during the recession and walked away scot-free? It wasn’t them. Who jacked up their tuition, outsourced their parents’ jobs, disposed of pensions and health care plans? Not them. Who came up with the iPhone? Not them.

But they’re “acting like they are entitled?”

I mean, seriously — how can anyone sit back and chew their cud and piss about lazy entitled Millenials when those lazy entitled Millenials didn’t smash the world economy to bits and pieces or pick fights overseas that historically could not be won? [Sidebar to the sidebar: Is anyone else concerned that the Russians are actually taking a page from the Reagan playbook and forcing the U.S. to overspend on its military? Hmm.] We invented the internet for them, and now we’re pissed because they want to work on-the-go from an iPad? Sorry, the animals are out of the barn and the ship has sailed, Old People. Millenials went to Iraq and Afghanistan and came home without arms, legs, or psyches, and several thousand didn’t come home at all. Remind me: Is it other Millenials that are preventing those vets from getting the help they need? Is it Millenials ordering the bombing of more and more people in Asian and African nations?

Sorry, Old People. Monkey-see, monkey-do. If we want Millenials to get their shit together, we have to show them ourselves by the choices we make with our wallets, our votes, and our words. It’s that simple. They are watching — or, they were. I can’t blame them if they’ve given up on us.

We gave up on them a long time ago. And they are hyper-aware of the mess they are inheriting. Ask ’em.

Are Millenials entitled? Yes, they sure as hell are.

They are entitled to have the people who are supposed to guide them to do things right and leave things in a better way than how we found it. They’re entitled to breathable air and a sustainable environment. They’re entitled to peace.

Stop painting them with a broad brush. You didn’t like it when old people did it to you after your Def Leppard concert, you shredded-jeans-wearing feathered-hair-having nut.

So let’s break the cycle.

Bang.