The Guilty Generation

J

JerryM

New member
I thought this was too good not to pass on. Jerry



Subject: the guilty generation

Thomas Smart wrote:
>
> SENIORS MUST LEARN TO SACRIFICE!
> All citizens of the USA should remember this!"
> I was embarrassed to read that President Clinton and his advisors
> have said, "The older generation must learn to sacrifice as other
> generations have done". That's my generation. I knew eventually someone would ferret out the dirty secret. We've lived the "lifestyle of the rich and famous"
> all our lives. Now, I know I must bare the truth about my generation and let the
> country condemn us for our selfishness. During the Depression, we had a hilarious time dancing to the tune of "Brother Can You Spare A Dime?" We could choose to dine at any of the country's fabulous soup kitchens, often joined by our parents and siblings. Those were the heady days of carefree self-indulgence.
> Then, with World War II, the cup filled to overflowing. We had the
> chance to bask on the exotic beaches of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and
> Okinawa, to see the capitals of Europe and to travel to such scenic
> spots as Bastogne, Malmedy and Monte Cassino. Of course, one of the
most exhilarating adventures was the stroll from Bataan to the local
Japanese hotels, laughingly known as death camps.
>But the good times really rolled for those lucky enough to be on the
>beaches of Normandy for the swimming and boating that pleasant June
> day in '44. Unforgettable.
>Even luckier were those who drew the prized holiday tickets for
> cruises on sleek, gray ships to fun filled spots like Midway, The
Solomons and Murmansk. Instead of asking, "What can we do for our country," an
> indulgent government let us fritter away our youth wandering idly
> through the lush and lovely jungles of Burma and New Guinea.
> Yes, it's all true. We were pampered; we were spoiled rotten; we
> never did realize what sacrifice meant. We envy you, Mr. Clinton, the
> harsh lessons you learned in London, Moscow and Little Rock.
>My generation is old, Mr. President, and guilty; but we are
> repentant. Punish us for our failings, sir, that we may learn the
true meaning of Duty, Honor, and Country.
>
> Robert J. Grady, Lt. Col., USAF (Ret), Colorado Springs
>

>




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Ecclesiastes 12:13  ¶Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
 
Lt. Colonel Grady does have a way with words.

Thanks for the post Jerry.

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If you're not a little upset with the way the world is going, you're not paying attention.
 
It wouldn't penetrate, Ledbetter. Remember, this is the guy who travelled to Moscow to protest the Viet Nam war. He thinks he's the greatest think that's happened to world peace for all the reasons I see him and his wife as the most dangerous threat to the USA in its history.
 
Just for the sake of getting the "greatest" generation a little riled up, I thought I would add a few words to temper the self-promotion that has been going on the past few years.
1. The GG (greatest generation) put man on the moon, and kindly forgot to pay for it, and every other extravagance since, making sure that their posterity to the fourth and fifth generations would be reminded of their sacrifices.
2. When most members of that grand generation were born, taxes were below 15%, and you could walk into the hardware store and buy a BAR, or a Thompson SMG. Now you can't have but ten bullets to a mag.
3. Schools have been all but destroyed, and the moral fiber of this nation has given way to the worship of the almighty dollar.
4. Now I hear that the GG is wanting me to pay for their prescription drugs too. This really gets my goat. Taxes to pay for your drugs will come out of my paycheck BEFORE I can get my own infant son his drugs. Unfortunately, I cannot get on public assistance as that is determined off of a pre tax amount, and before I lose 40% of my check to the government, I actually am determined to make too much. Neither I nor my son have medical insurance because we're paying for Medicare!
5. Social security for which I have paid thousands of dollars is going to fund the retirement of those who made the above sacrifices, and my generation probably wont see a penny of years of contributions.

And lastly, when I am ashes, and my son is an elderly man, he and his grandchildren will be paying for the GG and all of their selfless sacrifice. There is a definate turning point in the life of the Republic and it started about the time the GG was getting to be of voting age. That's when we got FDR, and socialism. That's when Americans learned they could vote themselves money from the public treasury.
Possibly the worst thing the GG did was not appreciate, and pass on the accumulated knowlege and love of liberty to future generations, therefore leaving us with a population that wishes for Security in the place of liberty, and is afraid to take a stand. For that, the GG should be ashamed.
 
kjm,

Imagine the world without that generation. I don't sweat the small stuff, and your complaints, no offense meant, are small stuff compared to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. I oughta include the USSR: Reagan knocked the stuffing out of them, and he's part of that generation.
 
As if Clinton knows anything about sacrifice. You can't teach what you don't know and you can't lead where you won't go. My Dad tells of trying to sell molasses for a dime a gallon in the depression. Nobody had a dime with which to buy it. He was shot twice in Europe and my uncle left a leg over there.

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Alexander Solzhenitzyn:
"Freedom is given to the human conditionally, in the assumption of his constant religious responsibility."
 
kjm - Well, you did a pretty good job. I'm not of the GG since I was born in 1933. The few memories I have of the 30s are not good.
We lived one week on a box of stale candy bars donated by a sympathetic grocer, cardboard liners to cover the holes in shoes, etc. We were not the exception. Today kids spend money to look poor.

Yeah, taxes were below 15%, but 25% of the work force was out of work and the rest were scared to death they would be next. To this day, it is a wonder to me that we didn't go Communist then as a lot of people had every reason to do so.

How perceptions change! Early 1940, when my parents saw black smoke spewing from the factory stacks, polluting the air, they said, "Thank God! People are working again!"

War came soon after and I can remember little banners appearing in windows. One blue star for each family member in the service. Some had three or four. Then the casualty lists came in and soon those stars were gold (KIA). Women would start to cry when the Western Union kid headed their way.
We used to stone the little bastard.

After the war, we'd listen to the vets - those that would talk. One guy who saw Hell, starting with D-Day, said he never lost it until he hit the Concentration Camps and saw bins full of baby shoes. Another guy told of hearing some guys in a hit Sherman tank screaming and pounding on the hull as she "brewed up". All he could do was listen - he was pinned down. After a while the screaming stopped and the hull turned a bright cherry red. He started crying then -- we thought it was unmanly of him.

We'd occasionally see guys double up in pain in public and leave bloody footprints. It seems that shell splinters take a while to work themselves out, sometimes in the damnedest places and at the most awkward times.

I was working in a country weekly in 1957. One of the ladies there said she was still having problems with her son. I thought she meant booze, but it was Saipan 1945 every other night for him, when he woke everybody up with his crying.

Go down to the VA and see how many parking spaces are marked "Handicapped". There's still guys in there from WWII, although not as many now. They still got a couple of guys there with no arms or legs, just trunks. Try
"living" like that for 50 years. Pay for their prescriptions? Hell, I'll be the first in line!

When the troops came home, the liberals wrung their hands and said we were in for a crime wave and blood bath as all those
"bloodthirsty soldiers" would be home soon.
Those that didn't crack up knuckled down and instead created a boom that lasted for years.
They didn't want to bother ANYBODY.

P!$$ed about paying Social Security? Geez, I'll bet a lot of those GGs would love to pay those rates, let alone collect, only they died before they could contribute.

So your son and his grandkids will be paying for the GGs sacrifice? Well, they'll be paying in dollars instead of marks and yen, and when they bitch about it, as you do, it will be in American and not German or Japanese.

Yeah, we're in a mess now, but that sure as Hell isn't the GG's fault. We didn't start to go downhill until the late 60's. I was there and watched it with uncomprehending eyes - like everybody else.



[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited July 14, 2000).]
 
Good post Oatka. I was born in 32 so I am not part of that generation. However, they kept us free and I am eternally grateful. I don't mean this as a flame, but I fear that if the present generation had been the GG we would have been under Hitler or Stalin. I would also add that they (as we also) didn't complain because the govt. didn't give enough tax breaks, etc for child care. We took care of our own. Jerry

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Ecclesiastes 12:13  ¶Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
 
Looks like I stirred up a hornets nest! I like it hot.
Just because a generation fights a war (granted a really big one), and has a large portion of its population suffering from such, doesn't mean you come home, trash the constitution, and force your posterity to pay eternally for it. We are morally obligated to the veteran and his family to cover all expenses that he incurrs as a result of his service. Somthing for which we have done poorly. As a disabled combat vet, I think I pretty well know the costs of war. What I do however expect, is that all able bodied members of society go out and get a job, and what you can't support, you don't force your kids to pay for. The sixties were strange indeed. Viet-Nam was so blatently UNCONSTITUTIONAL that it suprises me that there wasn't a mass revolt against the U.S. Government. I would beg and plead my son to not go to a war like that, and he would be doing his duty by not going. WWII was the last war that was constitutional. It rather amazes me that the GG would send its own sons off to die when Congress didn't even consider it important enough to declare war.
Don't rant to me either about WWII vets. My G'father lost a foot somewhere in France. He was adequately cared for, and was mad as hell that the people were now more interested in raping the public trough, instead of looking out for the next generation. He felt that he didn't do anything more than anyone else, and he actually felt that he recieved more than necessary from the Government (he went to Ft. Sam Houston for his medical care).
I don't think I ever once suggested that veterans shouldn't be cared for, but I also made a strong suggestion that we ought not be paying for somebody's prescription drugs who never once wore a uniform nor saw a shot fired in anger. If you think that the government getting involved in Healthcare in any way shape or form is a good idea, you obviously have no idea what the government tends to do once it takes over.
As for Bill the Clinton, I would say that he would be rather pleased about people inviting him in to run their healthcare ect...
 
kjm,

I agree with most of what you say. It seems to me that the wars since WW II have followed neither the letter nor intent of the Constitution in getting the nation into a war. I think that when we send our youth to fight a war we need to declare war and to go to win. The limited objectives of the Korean War spawned what I believe to be perverted thinking about fighting a war. I believe MacArthur was right in his thinking about that, but wrong as to his public statements and should have been fired. But Congress has sanctioned each and every one of these actions. I would like to see a lawsuit brought to the Supreme Court regarding these "Police Actions." I'm not sure how we got ourselves into this situation where the President can send our troops to die wherever and whenever he desires - often simply for political gain and with no stated objective or plan to extract. Where I disagree with you is any idea that young men can determine whether or not they should go to war when ordered to do so by their constituted legal authorities. Vietnam was a tragedy and we should not have been there. (I was there) At the time I thought it was just, but in retrospect and with the subsequent revelations I conclude that it was a travesty and our national leaders, especially the presidents and McNamara, were criminal in their actions. Having said that, I have no respect for anyone whom refused to serve or fled to Canada and I never will. I don't really think they refused out of a Constitutional consideration or that they had some special insight. I think they were of the character of Bill Clinton. If I had had a son and he did that I would have disowned him. Regards, Jerry


------------------
Ecclesiastes 12:13  ¶Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
 
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