A story about the oldest remaining Pearl Harbor survivor. I though this was pretty telling:
About 2,000 survivors attended the 50th anniversary event in 1991. A few dozen have showed in recent decades. In 2024, only two made it. That is out of an estimated 87,000 troops stationed on Oahu that day. None made the pilgrimage to Hawaii last year.
Over at The American Catholic, there was a similar reflection on Memorial Day when thinking on that Greatest Generation and the passage of time. Other observation about Mr. Johnson that probably sums up much of that generation's tendencies:
“I wish more people were like him today. He just gets on and doesn’t complain about anything,” said Desmond Keogh, the chairman of the parade who has accompanied Johnson. “It’s what this country was all about. They were just a different generation. They did what was best for their country.”
Each generation probably wants to be a credit to those who came before, and I'm sure the development of Memorial Day was merely a part of that process. Whether that is what our current generation wants or cares about, I don't know.
Nonetheless, Memorial Day is a day to ponder such thing. As a reminder, here is one way my family has done so over the years, from an old, old post. There were many other things we did, but this came to my mind this week.
For all their stoicism, it's a shame that the "Greatest Generation" didn't actually raise their children better. To be fair, however, they were raised in scarcity and sacrifice and their children were raised in abundance and indulgence. I can hardly think I'd do any better actually. My kids are way more bougie in their sensibilities than is probably good for them even though I'd hardly call them spoiled. As an example, when my oldest kids were young, whatever was on PBS kids was IT. Now through the PBS Kids app, you can pick between several episodes of whatever show you want to watch at any given time.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it has always bothered me that we sent the best of our young men over to the Middle East wars. It did untold damage to many of them personally, physically, psychologically, and ultimately even philosophically. What did they even sacrifice for? The WWII vets never had that conundrum.
Years ago when I was a pastor I was having dinner with one of the elderly gentlemen in our church. WW2 vet. We were talking about the state of things then. His name was Duard. He said then that their biggest mistake was spoiling their kids. Though over the years I've gotten a broader view of that generation. A few years ago I saw a documentary that followed the lives of a dozen vets (including a nurse). I'd say about 1/3 of them had a 'heck with it, it's a waste of time, it's not worth it, who cares, everything was loser' reflection (including some who ended up not making it). I said then that if that was proportional, and that reflected the general attitude of the entire generation, the entire youth rebellion made sense. It wouldn't surprise me if those particular veterans would have been out there with their kids protesting America, burning it to the ground, and standing with communists. Not to hear their attitudes. Though I do think the WW2 did have that conundrum, they just handled it differently. Consider the movies Best Years of Our Lives or 12 O'clock High.
DeleteThat's an interesting observation on the attitudes actually. War is devastating in so many ways, including the psyche. That attitude post WWI definitely tanked European culture. I guess one way of processing that whole experience was to continually assuage the memories and highlight the noble notions that catapulted so many in their youth onto the battlefield, which is how the WWII generation got the moniker of "Greatest."
DeleteI've pondered this for years. I know some will dismiss it and say any large group like that will have its exceptions. But with millions of veterans, those exceptions can be pretty numerous. I sometimes wonder if maybe, already, that Greatest Generation had already been bitten by the 'Dead West' syndrome, of who cares about God, King or Country, let's just have an easy go of it. They were able to perform such monumental deeds during the war from sheer momentum of previous generations' values, but quickly succumbed to the logical ramifications of this post-Western movement.
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