ATL Bear said:
Oldbear83 said:
Ohhh, I wouldn't say that, exactly.
We have kind of romanticized the "Greatest Generation", and while I do agree some of our finest men and women lived and worked in those days, we saw our share of slovenly and cowardly people. My dad lived through those days and told me about dock workers who would take money to sabotage ships, not to sink them, but to delay the finish so they could make more work to do. He knew people who forged ration coupons to get more sugar and meat, and sometimes cops sold fake ration books to get extra money.
There were men who faked injury to get out of combat roles, and men who deserted and ran to Canada during WW2, just like during Vietnam. There were politicians, local state and federal, who ran against FDR claiming he lied us into the war, and there were people who claimed his "fireside chats" were propaganda hiding how bad our losses really were.
I'm not trying to insult or degrade the character of our fine men and women of the 1940s, but to point out that in every age, there are people who do us proud, and people who act shamefully. Some generations are more honorable than others, but each has its slugs and each has its champions. We have people today who represent our best ideals, and some - like Dan Crenshaw or Tulsi Gabbard, carry that same honorable commitment to duty into political office. Others carry greed and personal ambition into office with them.
It's important to notice the good and support it when we see it.
Whether or not there were bad people in that generation and/or being the "greatest"
Is overhyped doesn't change the reality that they had more grit than we have today. It was required because of the lack of convenience we benefit from today, the type of work and adversity they had to face daily, and the type of warfare they fought (drawing it to WWII). Of course we have great people today, but if you evaluate what a culture champions it gives you great insight into the make of the people. We certainly have great social and technical advances that needed to and/or have occurred from the days of that generation, but we are beginning to fail as citizens to deal with adversity without some massive involvement of government, and our military is generally mercenary in nature. We have long abandoned JFK's call all those years ago, and find ourselves plagued by a consumerist "me" society.
I think you are missing a good chunk of the nation.
I have seen church workers, for example, put together food drives to help people suffering from the pandemic.
I have seen neighborhoods in South Houston march against drug dealers and gangs, literally driving them from their streets.
As a sports official, I have seen adults volunteer time, money and energy to help kids learn discipline, honor and teamwork through sports.
As a political analyst, I have interviewed people from a number of different parties and learned their plans to make America responsive to her people and to replace career politicians with genuine public servants,
I have friends who served in different uniforms, from cops on the beat to a friend who worked undercover in Mexico helping protect the US against narco infiltration. I have friends who went into countries like Iraq
before the Special Ops guys, and provided the tools and supplies they needed in advance.
I know oil company owners who gave up their own savings to keep their people employed, and I know young employees who took on additional work to keep their companies afloat. I know teens who still call old people 'maam' and 'sir' because that's what they learned from their moms and dads. I know young people who build their communities.
Don't judge the generation by what the media shows you. There's more to them than you might know.
That which does not kill me, will try again and get nastier