What Would The Greatest Generation Do?

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Poor_mother_and_children,_Oklahoma,_1936_by_Dorothea_Lange

(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.

american-troops-approaching-omaha-beach-on-normandy-beach-d-day-world-war-ii_800

(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.

 

67 thoughts on “What Would The Greatest Generation Do?”

  6. 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…

    Liked by 3 people

  7. 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.”

    Liked by 2 people

  9. 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.💜

    Liked by 1 person

  12. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. 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 – 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  17. 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

    Liked by 1 person

  18. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

    • 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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  20. 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?

    Liked by 3 people

  23. JaimeReader

    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.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. 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.

    Liked by 1 person

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