I've always been in awe of the people who fought WWII. When I was a kid there were elderly relatives who had seen horrors in places like the Burman jungles, but flatly refused to tallk about them, and there were people on TV who would talk about the War. I particularly remember a Battle of Britain pilot who was asked if he despaired of the Younger Generation. "Naaahhh. My father always called me a drunken bum until I won a medal. I expect this lot are the same
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I do despair of some "young adults" today -- who somehow haven't picked up very much contemporary history. Somehow, I don't think Vietnam created a "great generation" who could even try to communicate their harshly learned truths. But -- at the same time -- there just weren't the receptive young, awaiting whatever tentative reflections their half-generation elders might fashion.
As you wrote, WWII somehow bequeathed something important to us. Yet, much as today's young resist lessons of ANY sort, those "life-lessons" that WE considered ourselves lucky to have learned may not be what they will need...
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I do despair of some "young adults" today -- who somehow haven't picked up very much contemporary history. Somehow, I don't think Vietnam created a "great generation" who could even try to communicate their harshly learned truths. But -- at the same time -- there just weren't the receptive young, awaiting whatever tentative reflections their half-generation elders might fashion.
As you wrote, WWII somehow bequeathed something important to us. Yet, much as today's young resist lessons of ANY sort, those "life-lessons" that WE considered ourselves lucky to have learned may not be what they will need...
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