Joel Stein, Boomer Enough

If you read Time Magazine, you’ve heard of Joel Stein.

If not, he’s got the Awesome Column toward the back of each issue.

And he fills it up boomer style.

What is boomer style? Doing stuff that doesn’t seem to matter at first, but then grows legs and runs.

Joel had a runner in a recent column when he addressed the bash mobs of Hollywood.

Police arrested rioters who’d gathered to protest the George Zimmerman verdict.

These weren’t on the scale of the Rodney King riots, but Joel Stein wanted to do something helpful.

With a million followers on facebook and twitter, Stein called for a meeting to hand out water in Hollywood.

One man showed up.

The bash mob did the same with a call to action and delivered fifty glass breaking, cell phone taking, teens.

Stein’s guy was a doctor in scrubs just off work. He was literally the one in a million you hear about.

Online bloggers and tweeters and picture posters know they have pull when they call a meeting and loads of people show up.

Joel Stein has pull, but after his results in off-line organizing he said he won’t do it again.

Is that fair?

This baby boomer blogger did a real time event with similar results. Clothed in a shirt with “boomerpdx.com” written on the front, I ‘worked’ the Oregon Brewers Festival for one night and the next day.

I connected with the beer crowd by wearing a huge beer mug hat and an American flag shirt. It had an Easy Rider vibe going.

Anyone who wanted a picture of the beer hat guy got an earful of NW Boomer.

“Can I get a picture?”

“Yes you can, but with one condition.”

“Oh God, you’re not going to charge for it are you?”

“We’ll both take a picture, but I want you to join my blog, boomerpdx.com. It’s right here on my shirt.”

“Cool. A blogger. What’s it about?”

(Since many of the photo subjects were younger women I needed a better answer than “It’s about life in the Baby Boomer lane.”)

“It’s about a way of life, your way of life, but it’s slipping away.”

“I’ll do it. I’ll join.”

I told them I’d post their pictures if they did.

Like Joel Stein, I got one new member signed up on boomerpdx. Did I feel bad? Will I ever make the effort again?

With nearly 1000 followers on twitter and facebook, I matched the same number from Joel Stein’s million. At a beer festival.

It was an outstanding effort by all, great beers, and plans for the future event.

Work, work, work.

Let the healing begin.

When you’re called to meet by an online entity, make sure you know which side of the law they stand on.

A giant beer hat won’t protect you from doing the wrong thing, but it’s a start.

If I call a NW Boomer meeting, just know we’re all together without worry of the law. Why? Because we pay attention.

And recruit.

If you can’t move the mountain, go to the mountain.