(https://commons.wikimedia.org)
My parents were in the generation that faced the twin horrors of The Great Depression and World War Two. They experienced economic hardships past anything that we are suffering today. They fought a war against two tyrannies in Japan and Germany. They fought in a war, that at the most conservative, estimate killed 56 million people. The Greatest Generation did not worry about being inconvenienced; they did not let fear stop them. They did what they had to do, and they sacrificed in ways that are almost incomprehensible to people today.
(https://www.goodfreephotos.com)
I shake my head when I see people protesting the lockdowns that are aimed at saving lives. They speak of inconvenience. Could these people have fought World War Two or lived through the hardships of the Great Depression? I think not. I know people are frustrated, but people gathering in crowds in protests, with no masks, are begging not only to be infected with Covid-19, but also they will spread it to others, including their loved ones, workers, and health care people. What can justify such selfishness?
We, as a society, need to learn from the sacrifices, the strength, and the courage of the Greatest Generation.
So very well said, CF. Thank you for sharing. ♥
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You are very welcome.
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AND, the picture takes me back to my childhood… ♥
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I understand.
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Well said.
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Thank you.
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Well said.
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Thank you!
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Nothing can justify such selfishness. More people will die.
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Liz, unfortunately, that is very true.
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I was brought up by my grandparents. My grandfather fought in some of the worst campaigns in WWII and returned home, hollowed by TB, while my grandmother kept a smallholding going with two small children – just herself on her own. I keep wondering how they would react to the current crisis – except that I know. They would have gritted their teeth, abided by the best advice and kept going. Because that’s what they always did. A shining example…
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Yes! That is exactly my point!
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So true what you write. I was raised by my grandmother, who was a young girl, almost a teen, during the Depression… she kept newspapers from WW2 – which was how I learned about that war. Old newspapers and Grandma’s best friend, a holocaust survivor. My childhood complaints of being inconvenienced didn’t hold much water. I learned from them, and later from my adopted father, a Navy vet, that “it’s not what happens to you, or how inconvenienced you feel that matters – it’s how you respond, the ways you take events/feelings and what you do next – that is what matters.”
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Sue, thank you so much. Your father was a wise man.
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Thank you. Dad really was wise. I miss him still. Always will. But when something you write reminds me of something he said – that’s so nice! So thanks for being pretty darn wise yourself sir!!
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You are very welcome, and I am honored.
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Reblogged this on Becoming is Superior to Being and commented:
Need I say more!
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Thank you!
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You are completely right, when I think what my parents and grandparents lived through, two world wars, the Spanish flu. They had nothing but they just did what was needed.
Sadly there were people then who did not conform, and just like those today today they make it worse for the majority who do and did comply.💜
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Thank you.
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A pleasure 💜
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nothing can justify their selfish acts, and i so agree with you, charles
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Beth, thank you.
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Hear, hear!
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Thank you!
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You’re welcome, Charles!
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I will never forget when Dr. Birx recently told the story of her grandmother. As a child she unknowingly infected her grandmother with the 1918 flu, and her grandmother died. She had to carry that burden of infecting her grandmother for the rest of her life. Dr. Birx heard her grandmother tell the story many times. That was powerful.
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Yes, it was extremely powerful.
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Indeed it was. I wish she would repeat the story, because many people need that real connection to ‘get it’.
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Yes, I agree.
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🙂
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Yes. Exactly right. We are so entitled as a country!
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yes, unfortunately we are.
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Amen to that.
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Thank you!
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I have been reflecting my my great-grandparent’s lives – they lived through two world wars and the great depression – and my mother’s youth – she grew up during WWII, and thinking about how people pulled together to get by. The dig for victory and other campaigns often come to mind. I have wondered, ever since I wrote While the Bombs Fell, how modern people would react if faced with a war situation. Now we are finding out.
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Robbie, yes we are. I am heartened by the sacrifice of some, and I am disheartened by the selfishness of others.
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My grandparents a lil old to fight WW11, my parents a tad too young – however, Great Depression, War Rationing, or Modern 70s forward – I can only think of one response that would be made re: protests – “Well….obviously those so- and-so’s have way too much time on their hands and the abundance to free them up from meeting daily needs….” — or some version of such things – 🙂
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My father, in particular, would have had very “choice” words to describe the selfishness of their actions.
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I am now just over 70 and my generation is k own as the Golden Generation. No wars, free tertiary education, easy to get employment etc etc. we see. To be coping OK with the lockdown but what have we given birth to ? This generation have little idea of life without every modern comfort and inconvenience. Not all of course but so many are complaining. Sad
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Yes, it is sad.
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I’ve tried to tell people this. We so admire that generation, but now that we have the chance to prove we have the same grit, we fail. They had WWI and a pandemic followed immediately after in 1920, which was followed by the Great Depression that walked them into WWII. Yet THIS generation complains constantly.
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I completely agree. We need to show the grit they had; we need to learn from what is happening; and we need to stop being selfish and instead do what is best for the country, for the Unites States of America.
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Thank you for these encouraging words, Charles! Will spread them, too. Hope you are well, and stay save. Best wishes, Michael
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Michael, you are very welcome.
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In the 1970’s, when we were a military family, many people from other countries told us that America was changing, was different, was not the country they had known as a role model… Clearly it wasn’t just rudeness they were referring to. And it is a shame that our Achilles Heel was already blatantly showing for others, and we refused to see it even then…. Can we see it now?
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KC, I certainly hope we do.
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Amen!
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Thank you!
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Well said, Charles. Many today didn’t know what a sacrifice was a just can’t/won’t deal with it. Lack of knowledge about history is certainly one of the problems.
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Becky, you are correct.
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Well put. I feel the same way. It’s been a while since I’ve had the privilege to read your words, but I am never disappointed when I do. Thank you for sharing your insight.
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You are very welcome!
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You are 100% correct here. I too see the change in Americans and it’s not all pretty. There are exceptions but I do wonder what our spoiled generations are going to do when it really hits that fan and it will. It’s inevitable with the way things are going. Coming from a military family myself and a mother who lived through WWII in Germany, I see this more clearly than many. I agree with what KC REDDING-GONZALEZ said.
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Thank you! And I agree also.
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Reblogged this on Once Upon a Time…. and commented:
Many in the younger generation really need to read this, many have been corrupted by what surrounds them: racism, greed, lust, hate, and no inner core, no belief in goodness, sharing or love, only anger.
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Thank you so much!
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I see different areas of the our country effected differently. On the east coast there is little demonstrations or none at all. In the mid-west areas of the country there are some demonstrations with guns and threats for no purpose but to thump their weak chests and they didn’t think this for themselves, they were trained by haters, by unbalanced people. They drank the cool aid.
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Unfortunately, even in Harrisburg, PA, we had these protesters, and yes, they drank the cool aid.
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Well, they drank the cool-aid and now many of them are no longer breathing, because they believed Trump when he said the virus was a hoax, nothing to worry about it would be gone like magic. Oh dear, how wrong is Trump’s magical thinking.
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I would say his magical thinking is completely deluded thinking.
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Yes…Trump is a magical thinking 5 year old child. Magical thinking stops at 5 years old…so he will always remain 5 years old and he is retarded.
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Let’s go further–he is a delusional, magical thinking, self-obsessed, paranoid, narcissistic, sociopath.
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Yes…his is all of those deviant personality traits.
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He certainly is.
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Most of us have it easy. We don’t deal with adversity very much so we are ill-prepared. We (especially those in the USA) tend to be wimps.
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Unfortunately, you are correct.
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