I watched my baby-boomer mother dust off her singed Playtex bra in the wake of our nation's "New World Order," and I started thinking. Millennials and their parents are bridging a gap that until recently was ever-widening. After all, that picture of Dad with the flower in his hair is more a fairy tale than the man you knew growing up.

Our parents are from a generation that traded its tie dye for suits and ties, its protest signs for briefcases, free-love for matrimony and station wagons, dirt weed for Prozac and high blood pressure medication, and is now preparing for worry-free retirement and cruise themed travel.

On the flip side, millennials, on more than one occasion, fall guilty of whining for no good reason. A generation entirely too sensitive for its own good developed its own satirical anecdotes like, "First World Problems," "Rich Kid Problems," and my favorite: "Words Hurt."

Well, we got what we asked for. The road our parents paved for us in yellow bricks started to crack and rust, and before long, we lost the path altogether.

After sobbing and swearing off all news outlets until I could get my emotions under control, I desperately sought out a silver lining, and I think I found a sliver of one. For the first time, my generation and I really understand what Gloria Steinem, Dr. King, JFK, Bobby Kennedy, and Betty Friedan—to name a few, were talking about. What's more beautiful is they are with us now.

It all started coming together when I heard on the radio that the top selling book on Amazon is George Orwell's "1984." Publishers are printing tens of thousands of copies to satisfy an increased demand. The rebirth of the intellectual is on the horizon and our parents are with us—reigniting the past to guide us back to Camelot. They've changed the batteries on their megaphones and dug up the thirty-year-old Quaaludes from that old nostalgia box in the closet. The forces have doubled and our cause is clear.

Breaking the silence:

We're here, we're queer. Say it loud!—we are black and we are proud. We are water. I am woman, hear me roar. We are every race, we are every religion, we are anything but unaffected. We are smart, we are determined, we are as experienced as we are innocent, and we are together.