The Greatest Generation
Our legacy now is but another monument of marble and granite on the Mall in Washington, the same cold stone plinths and platitudes as those rewarded to veterans of the Revolution and the Civil War. How I wish that my generation's gift to the future might have been one of peace instead of these countless, cruel wars and battles and bombings that have left around four hundred thousand of our young men and women killed or wounded, many hostage to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with millions of innocent civilians, so many women and children, killed in countless Third World nations. Oh, how I wish that we had led the United States to an international control of the atomic bomb instead of this incessant and virulent arms race that so frightens us even today. How I wish we had led the United States into the wisdom of limiting our sovereignty by leading the nations of the earth toward a world government, instead of our ruthless dedication to power, empire, and almost continuous war so as to maintain our arrogance and our hegemony.
How much safer the world would be today if we had so acted. We failed our higher responsibility. If we had performed greater acts of peace, leading the world away from its incessant commitment to war and weaponry, then, truly, we might deserve to be named the "Greatest Generation."
The simple truth is that we are a terribly failed generation. Certainly, we won the war and our fathers and mothers beat the Great Depression. Certainly we did all those things of which Steven Ambrose and Tom Brokaw so movingly speak. But in doing them we lost part of our soul. The accumulation of things became more important than the creation of real opportunity for men and women of all colors and classes. The fear of enemies became more important than trust among strangers. The importance of power became more important than compassion for the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely. The killing of innocents became routine, "collateral damage."
The movies, the books, the memoirs, the stories that tell our children of our courage and our strength apply to us only in our youth. For that moment, some of us may truly have been heroes. For that moment, some of us may have reached out far beyond ourselves.
Perhaps, now, as we age, near death, we can at last perform one more service for this country we love and for which many had died. Perhaps now, at last, we can tell the truth about who we are and what we have become, our last act of service to this nation we so love.
from Worshiping the myths of World War II: reflections on America's dedication to war, by Edward W. Wood, Jr. (he has written a lot about the war and about PSTD, I recommend it.)
How much safer the world would be today if we had so acted. We failed our higher responsibility. If we had performed greater acts of peace, leading the world away from its incessant commitment to war and weaponry, then, truly, we might deserve to be named the "Greatest Generation."
The simple truth is that we are a terribly failed generation. Certainly, we won the war and our fathers and mothers beat the Great Depression. Certainly we did all those things of which Steven Ambrose and Tom Brokaw so movingly speak. But in doing them we lost part of our soul. The accumulation of things became more important than the creation of real opportunity for men and women of all colors and classes. The fear of enemies became more important than trust among strangers. The importance of power became more important than compassion for the poor, the weak, the sick, and the lonely. The killing of innocents became routine, "collateral damage."
The movies, the books, the memoirs, the stories that tell our children of our courage and our strength apply to us only in our youth. For that moment, some of us may truly have been heroes. For that moment, some of us may have reached out far beyond ourselves.
Perhaps, now, as we age, near death, we can at last perform one more service for this country we love and for which many had died. Perhaps now, at last, we can tell the truth about who we are and what we have become, our last act of service to this nation we so love.
from Worshiping the myths of World War II: reflections on America's dedication to war, by Edward W. Wood, Jr. (he has written a lot about the war and about PSTD, I recommend it.)