Although I’m only one voice among the many students our age, I object to Daniel Weisfield’s proposal that we become the “Lion King” Generation (“‘Lion King’ Generation waits to take throne,” 3/28). There’s a reason we don’t call Baby Boomers the Hula Hoop Generation — that would be trivial. The prospect of defining ourselves by the cultural detritus to which we’re irrationally attached is a dispiriting one, and the paragraph in which Weisfield lumps Sept. 11 in with the first season of “Survivor” successfully manages to be the most soul-crushing thing I’ve read this week. We’re a generation that has seen the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Contract With America, two Gulf Wars and the beginning of a (potentially perpetual) War on Terror. But if waxing nostalgic about “Hakuna matata” and Pogs is our generation’s contribution to the world, we should probably just get it over with and kill ourselves now.

Sam Heller ’08

March 28, 200