We have all heard the stories and history of that era of men and women and youth who struggled through the Great Depression of the 1930s and through the end of World War II.
They are known as The Greatest Generation.
I have a substantial question for us all: Are we The Next Greatest Generation? We are now facing a crisis every bit as formidable as that from 80-90 years ago.
It began when the stock market crashed in October of 1929 The actual financial depression wasn’t fully defined and acknowledged until later in 1930.
President Herbert Hoover was ultimately revealed and exposed as a weak world leader, because he was totally overwhelmed by the financial collapse. Hoover failed to make American lives better in any manner: His stay-the-course philosophy was akin to giving his sailors a teacup to bilge out an aircraft carrier. His communications to the nation were shockingly poor. A sheer, tsunami-like wave of desperation tore through America, and Hoover did nothing to assuage fears. He couldn’t even manage a voice of reasoned calm.
The Greatest Generation surmised they were engaged alone, in battle for essentially everything. The words “bread line” or “soup line” are alien to you and I, but were a daily salvation and reality of nearly every town in the 1930s. Those fortunate to have work held quiet gratitude that money was there, at least temporarily, to keep them and their beloveds afloat and nourished for another week, another month. I dare say they didn’t look too far past that proverbial timeline, because nothing was guaranteed in those early desperate days, in that stifling climate of uncertainty and outright, black fear.
Fully 25% of the population was unemployed. Millions of Americans abandoned their brick-and-mortar homes to migrate toward any other potential prosperity there might be, and in the only shelter they had left – their cars.
In 1998, former NBC News Anchor legend Tom Brokaw wrote a masterful homage to them. It was rightly called, The Greatest Generation, and it’s arguably one of the finest tributes to those Americans ever written. It was they who kept their wits and their faith and their work ethic and their sympathetic sensibilities intact during the worst time in our history.
These people turned the ideal of sacrifice into a daily working mantra. They learned to adapt, to make do, to go without, to fix things, to give up for themselves and give to those less fortunate. They went to bed hungry.
The adage of “grace under pressure” is often used to pay credit to an athlete or performer whose work appears inspiringly effortless even under the perception of sheer, brutal duress. The Greatest Generation deserves that singular definition even more so, because they weren’t playing a fun game or singing a little song. They were fighting for their daily bread, and fighting bravely, with a determined grace we now can only look upon with awe.
Don’t get me wrong. There were plenty of idiots and douchebags and selfish pricks and miscreants and criminals and human turds out and about from 1930 to 1945. We have them now, in our current crisis. Back then, not all of the population were decent, upstanding, ordinary people in an extraordinary time. Some took gross advantage of others. Some swindled and stole. Some killed.
Most Americans survived the nearly 10 years of the Great Depression, but a great many died, from starvation, illness, devastation and many suicides. Those who lived on had to endure five more years of physical and mental sacrifice as America and the Allied Nations fought and won World War II against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy and Japan (and Russia to a smaller degree). That is why we call them The Greatest Generation. They did it for over 15 years. Imagine that…FIFTEEN YEARS.
Now, fast-forward to the present day:
The Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 is our Great Depression. It is our World War 3. It’s worse, because this has struck America and the world with frightening speed. We’ve barely been able to comprehend what’s happening, and now it’s literally on top of us. We’re going to find out in the next month where this disease is going. We need to “flatten the curve” and stop the spread of Covid-19.
My dear readers, I ask: Will You Step Up? Will we all gather up our courage and stare down the Coronavirus Pandemic, that scummy scourge Covid-19? Will you give the needed sacrifices that have to be made if we are to overcome?
The only way we’ll win this is if we work together. We won’t defeat this enemy with just the Baby Boomers, or just the Millennials, or the Gen X and Gen Y’ers or any other single demographic. It must be a collaboration on all fronts, a total team effort. We’ve got a job to do right now and our mission is to take care of each other. But…we need a leader.
By 1932, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the helm in the Oval Office and exploded onto the political stage, declaring his famous mission statement:
“We have nothing to fear, except fear itself!”
This man gave a wounded nation a real vision of light through the darkness. With his many economic stimulus programs, his weekly radio “fireside chats”, his firm nature and good humor, with his fortitude alone, he armed the American people with the resolve needed to move through the very worst of times. And he did it from a wheelchair.
We are soldiers in this pandemic war, but any army must always have a general of substance, a bona fide, fearless soul that leads us into each battle, for in the words of Shakespeare, we are most definitely “heading once more into the breach, dear friends”.
And now, a special, cautionary word to the media. Stop antagonizing. No more fear-mongering. Ditch your egos and your need for ratings and your self-importance. As a former journalist, I remember well, my lessons from college: “You’re journalists – you report the news – you don’t hinder the process by becoming part of the news story. EVER”.
I believe in America. I believe in our strength, in our resourcefulness, in our compassion, in our spirit. I believe we have what it takes – call it perseverance, gumption, determination, stick-to-itiveness, guts or nuts…take your pick. Then do it. Eat less, exercise more, engage your children and spouses and family and friends. Pray. Do for others, whenever you safely can. Learn to live without. Most of all, realize how precious life is. Focus less on material things and celebrities and needless fashion and overpaid athletes. Our American life is a pretty damn good thing. And worth fighting for.
It’s up to all of us. One team. One mission. One nation. Under God, indivisible.
We are The Next Greatest Generation.
jackblogsfood 