By Thom Little, Ph.D.
I wrote this on Veteran’s Day from a hotel room in Olympia, Washington as I prepared to lead a workshop on civility with members of the Lt. Governor’s Joint Committee on Civic Health. I was thinking about Private First Class Charles Hamilton. He was my grandfather, my mother’s father, and he served in World War II under General Patton. Fortunately for me, he did not give “the last full measure of devotion,” although he did sacrifice the fingers from his right hand, lost to a landmine on January 31, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge. My grandfather was a member of what Tom Brokaw, and now everyone else, calls “The Greatest Generation.”
You know them–maybe your parents, grandparents or even great grandparents. They came of age during the Great Depression, managing to put food on the table and raise families when unemployment was peaking at 25 percent. They carried the scars of that depression the rest of their lives, fearing banks, spending little and maybe even reusing scraps of tin foil and cling wrap. And then came World War II. Draft boards. Ration stamps. Victory Gardens. Rosie the Riveter. Gold Star families and telegrams bearing the worst news. They lost lives, but they did not lose hope and we are all the better for it.
However, a few weeks ago, it was pointed out to me that this was not the first Greatest Generation. Col. Doug Douds, a faculty member at The Army War College reminded those of us attending the annual meeting of the National Speakers Conference that America has produced a “greatest generation” about every eighty years, beginning with the men who established this nation and, against all odds, defeated the greatest military machine of the 18th Century. In 1776, 56 men signed a document that we know as the Declaration of Independence, but could have just as easily been called the death warrant for those who affixed their name. If the new nation loses its war of independence, these men would have been hanged as traitors to the King. But, thanks to valiant men like George Washington, Nathanial Greene, Henry Knox and thousands who risked and lost their lives, these men did not die as traitors but lived as the founders of this great nation. A great generation indeed.
Eighty years (four score) later, that nation found itself caught up in another war, one that pitted brother against brother. When efforts to address slavery and regional economic differences failed, America found itself at war with itself. The American Civil War. The War Between the States. The War of Northern Aggression or Southern Rebellion, depending on where you were raised. More than 600,000 men sacrificed their lives for a cause they believed in–southerners to defend their land and values and northerners to defeat slavery and preserve the nation. After four long years of war, the nation remained whole if not fully united. A great generation indeed.
So, every eighty years or so, America has produced a generation that rose to meet the challenge– first to create a nation, then to preserve that nation and finally to defend that nation and preserve democracy across the globe. 1780s, 1860s, 1940s….2020s. Is it time for the next great generation? America may not be engaged in a war of ballot or an economic depression but that does not mean we aren’t facing significant challenges. We are a divided nation, many suggesting we are as divided as we have been since the era leading to the Civil War. Further, we seem to be engaged in a war of ideas and values, a battle that at times has turned violent, to determine what kind of nation we will be. Will we be a red nation? A blue nation? A purple nation?
Could this generation bring us back together and become our fourth greatest generation? Could you be part of the solution that unites us, builds bridges and binds up our wounds? Let’s hope that once again, right on schedule, a new “Greatest Generation” steps up to reunite us as a nation.
