A very poignant and thought-provoking analysis of our situation.
Read and share it again during the current mess China and stupid, money-grubbing westerners and internationalists & leftists have brought us.
DB (Another 80 year old who confirms his comments.)
I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was
anything I can get him while this Coronavirus scare was gripping America.
He simply smiled, looked away and said:
“Let me tell you what I need! I need to believe, at some point, in this
country my generation fought for… I need to believe in this nation we handed
safely to our children and their children…
I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies…that
they respect what they’ve been given…that they’ve earned what others
sacrificed for.”
I wasn’t sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere
at all. So, I sat there, quietly observing.
“You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We
didn’t know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at
the end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans
enjoy today.
And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every
street, had someone in harm’s way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe
their son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole
damn family…fathers, sons, uncles…
Having someone, you love, sent off to war…it wasn’t less frightening than
it is today. It was scary as Hell. If anything, it was more frightening.
We didn’t have battle front news. We didn’t have email or cellphones. You
sent them away and you hoped…you prayed. You may not hear from them for
months, if ever. Sometimes a mother was getting her son’s letters the same
day Dad was comforting her over their child’s death.
And we sacrificed. You couldn’t buy things. Everything was rationed. You
were only allowed so much milk per month, only so much bread, toilet paper.
EVERYTHING was restricted for the war effort. And what you weren’t using,
what you didn’t need, things you threw away, they were saved and sorted for
the war effort. My generation was the original recycling movement in
America.
And we had viruses back then…serious viruses. Things like polio, measles,
and such. It was nothing to walk to school and pass a house or two that was
quarantined. We didn’t shut down our schools. We didn’t shut down our
cities. We carried on, without masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you
know what? We persevered. We overcame. We didn’t attack our President, we
came together. We rallied around the flag for the war. Thick or thin, we
were in it to win. And we would lose more boys in an hour of combat than we
lose in entire wars today.”
He slowly looked away again. Maybe I saw a small tear in the corner of his
eye. Then he continued:
“Today’s kids don’t know sacrifice. They think a sacrifice is not having
coverage on their phone while they freely drive across the country. Today’s
kids are selfish and spoiled. In my generation, we looked out for our
elders. We helped out with single moms who’s husbands were either at war or
dead from war. Today’s kids rush the store, buying everything they can…no
concern for anyone but themselves. It’s shameful the way Americans behave
these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices their granddads made.
So, no I don’t need anything. I appreciate your offer but, I know I’ve been
through worse things than this virus. But maybe I should be asking you,
what can I do to help you? Do you have enough pop to get through this,
enough steak? Will you be able to survive with 113 channels on your tv?”
I smiled, fighting back a tear of my own…now humbled by a man in his 80’s.
All I could do was thank him for the history lesson, leave my number for
emergency and leave with my ego firmly tucked in my rear.
I talked to a man today. A real man. An American man from an era long gone
and forgotten. We will never understand the sacrifices. We will never
fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about
them..learn from them…to respect them.
God Bless that man.
Thank you for reminding us. It should have never stopped being told.
I don’t know where these kids started saying ” I don’t want to hear it”.
It takes a person from the greatest generation to put today’s world in perspective. I am 71, the son of the greatest generation. I remember my dad and his good friend George both telling me on the day before I left for Vietnam Nam that they had fought a war so theirs sons wouldn’t have to. George hugged me and said, “Show them you have balls.” I never forgot that and I have tried to live up to their shadow, both highly decorated WWII veterans. I didn’t come back to a hero’s welcome, but I came back proud of my service and loving my country. We need more people like the 80 year old in the story to awaken the baby boomers to take back control of their children and grand children. Force the schools to teach reading writing and arithmetic rather than their own political agendas. Make prayer and the pledge to the flag as the way to start each day and give awards for winning not participating. There are so many flaws in today’s society. We can make our country great again by teaching the ne generations respect and responsibility. We can start by accepting a president elected by the people as our leader and working together towards a better future
This bitter old man has insulted every generation that came after his. What a nasty piece of work he is. Why don’t you forward his vitriol to every young person who is putting their lives and well being on the line in the Iraq and Afghanistan? They are in an unwinnable, never-ending war that was started based on a lie told by his generation – the lie about weapons of mass destruction.
If he had said something like this: Look my generation went through many hardships, but we found the courage and resolve to get through it, AND YOU WILL TOO.” You see the difference? There is no need to insult entire generations of people you don’t even know to make your point.
If he had done that, he might earn my respect.
I’m 70 years old and know many younger people who are respectful and hard working. And I live in a community filled with people you’d probably call lib-tards. But apparently, every young person you know is a selfish sissie. And that won’t be solved by prayer and the pledge.
Amen to John Lexo. He left out the part about us being “spit on” when we returned from Vietnam. We could not get jobs, and we knew how to work, however the draft dodgers had taken most available jobs. We did accept the $1.85 per hour and worked 3rd shift for it. We kept working. We went to school on our own money. We used what education we obtained and put it to good use. We are successful and share with those less fortunate, without some politician promising to “take from the rich and give to the poor” which is the norm in many liberal circles. I too am deeply saddened to these entitlement brats who cannot do math without a calculator or write an intelligently without slaughtering the English language.
If you went to school on your own money, it was by your own choosing. Veterans get free tuition in most states and have for many years. Why didn’t you take advantage of that?
I personally saw many Viet Nam vets go to the front of the list to be hired. And rightly so.
I know some vets of this war did not get the enthusiastic homecoming that WW2 vets got, but I think people have sorted that out and realize it was wrong. As fo being spit on, did that happen to you? There are no reports or records of that happening. http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=350