This Memorial Day, let’s begin creating a new ‘Greatest Generation’
On this Memorial Day, known until 1967 as Decoration Day, we are once again called upon to reflect and pay tribute to “all” of the men and women who have died or served in military service.
This yearly holiday, always celebrated on the last Monday of May, makes me harken back to former NBC newscaster for many years, Tom Brokaw’s 1998 book, which I just reread, “The Greatest Generation.” He wrote, “It was the greatest generation any society has produced.”
Brokaw’s book and other writings examine the men and women who whipped the Depression, won World War II, and went on to create the post-war economic expansion that has given so much to many of us.
We must continue to remember the ultimate sacrifice of the 291,557 U.S. soldiers who died in combat in World War II, the additional 125,243 killed in related causes and members of Gold Star families, who lost someone to the war.
The time has come for “all” Americans — to re-create the selfless spirit of those that won WWII and built a great nation and to become the “new” Greatest Generation. Today we must address our lack of faith we have in almost all of our institutions — both private and public.
I applaud Brokaw for his writings to recognize my father’s generation, and I fully expect that Memorial Day, one of our most patriotic holidays, will bring back wistful memories of these glory years for many people. But I’m nonetheless troubled by the subtle message beneath much of this hero worship — that somehow, only wartime elevates people to greatness and that, in particular, World War II was the swansong of American heroism.
A lot of this has to do with over 50 years of strife and change in American life. The assassinations of JFK, RFK and Martin Luther King; the Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Rights, 9/11, over one million Americans lost to the pandemic, Vietnam War, Watergate, Iraq Wars I and II, Afghanistan Wars I and II, and congressional gridlock have purged heroes and even the idea of heroism from our ranks.
So we look backward, to the veterans who beat Hitler and the Axis powers and who became loving parents, grandparents and heroes to us; all well and good, but not if it stops there.
We need new volunteers to work in our schools, in church and civic organizations, and with the charities that are doing the tough work of revitalizing our communities.
We need parents who will run for school boards, join parentteacher organizations, and stay up late with their kids to help with homework — efforts that will rebuild our much-maligned public schools and strengthen education.
We need courageous community leaders who will help local governments manage the public’s business without fear of criticism or the expectation of reward.
We need people to help tutor atrisk kids, register new voters, conduct blood drives and do things as simple as picking up trash in our communities.
If we want inspiration for all of this, we need only look as far as the stories that Brokaw writes and talks about. Stories about young men and women who saw their country was in trouble and answered that call with no expectation of reward, other than the expectation of death itself.
Today, the enemies are not the armies of Japan or Germany or Italy, nor the ravages of an economic depression, but they are serious enemies nonetheless.
There is materialism, which teaches our kids to put forth an effort only when they can expect a big reward and to work at jobs not to earn money for college but to spend on a host of useless stuff. There is the birth of Artificial Intelligence, which will fundamentally change the world.
There are anti-government groups, which at one end of the spectrum give us a chorus of angry voices on talk radio that think that every action of government is an affront to freedom. Funny enough, these same folks are often the first to laud the greatest generation — a group of people who elected and then partnered with their government to do the things that we salute them for on Memorial Day.
There is apathy, a force of inertia that keeps us addicted to cell phones and social media and devoted only to our own pleasures.
There is still too much anger and violence, in our schools and in our neighborhoods, in society and, of course, in our hearts.
But we’re not a broken nation. We are simply unfinished and always striving not to become perfect, but to become a “more perfect union” as enumerated in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
I read a lot about Brokaw’s greatest generation. It depicted the goodness in their faces and the truth of their stories. But nowhere did I hear them asking us for praise and remembrance.
From my own parents and from the wisest of the greatest generation, I hear pleas to all of us not to forget the nation or the people that they fought so many years ago to save. They still need saving. But we live in an era where leaders are more concerned with the exercise of their power rather than with the noble calling of public service. The new Greatest Generation must make a new commitment to public service and contributions beyond just political agendas.
Sacrifice, unity, hard work and humility must once again define the American character.
But for now, we should all get to work or risk becoming the “worst” generation!