Try to Be Like the Greatest Generation — Not the Snowflake Generation

Written by Jeanie D’Amico, sent to me by Judith A. McDonald

I’m old enough to remember the results of WWII. My dad was a war hero, he was muscular, strong, silent and wounded in his right hand but more damaged in his mind. I think he lived with the sound of war replaying in his head every day of his life after he came home. He had a group of army buddies who would come over to drink beer and reminisce about the war, I adored those men, but didn’t understand a bit.

What I remember is their bravado and optimism, one had a metal hook in place of a hand, I liked watching him open bottles and cans with his hook, he never complained. One had an artificial leg, I never heard him complain.

These young men were filled with pride and optimism, they had just defeated an impossible enemy that would have enslaved the world if it had been given the opportunity. Those men were heroes and knew it, they rejected the idea that they were individual heroes, but as a force, they were heroes. America was filled with optimism, there was nothing we couldn’t do or accomplish.

Those men and women built a new, urban America filled with innovation, nothing was out of reach. My generation grew up believing in American superiority, of accomplishment, nothing was impossible, anything could be accomplished. But, we were sheltered from the hard work, determination and drive that made our parents successful.

They assumed that if we were well educated, we could accomplish more than they did. But we sat in classrooms at a time in life when they were doing farm chores, chopping wood, caring for animals, canning and preserving food for winter. We became soft, but we still wanted the success that hard work brought our parents’ generation. Each generation since has become softer and softer to the point that young people need stuffed animals and safe spaces to cope with minor disagreements. We are not the same people who won two world wars, we are not the people who built skyscrapers, or invented all of our modern conveniences.

We must take off the blinders and see the world as it is, not the way my dad saw it, but the reality of the world of today. We forfeited my dad’s America, it’s time we recognize that. If we want an America like my parents’ generation, but an America with greater sensitivity to minorities and the disabled, we MUST first see the reality of where we are TODAY, not where we were in 1950.

We won’t do that listening to the mockingbird media and the corrupt looters and moochers, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and start to do the hard labor to restore the country, politicians won’t do it for us and it won’t happen if we are sending our youth and treasure into another losing war or locking ourselves in our houses because we’re afraid of each other. Be like my dad, don’t be like the college student protesting about pronouns.

 

 

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