America must give new life to old values

By John Florez
Published: Monday, May 30, 2005 9:15 a.m. MDT
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On this Memorial Day, maybe the best way to honor those who have given so much to our country is to renew the values they lived that made our nation strong. I can't help but think that those brave men and women who died for our country would like nothing better than to let that be their legacy.

In so doing, it would be helpful for us to reflect on the values lived by the "greatest generation" who went to war and came home to make our nation a leader in the industrial world. When our country was threatened, they stepped forward without hesitation to answer the "call to duty." And when our leaders also asked all Americans to help in the cause, they responded. They saved tin cans, scrap metal, used retreaded tires, bought gas based on A or B stickers, rationed coffee and sugar and volunteered to help our servicemen and servicewomen. When those men and women came home, they applied those same values to give new energy to our economy that created a quality of life we have come to enjoy.

Tom Brokaw's book, "The Greatest Generation," describes the lives of those men and women who fought in World War II, who grew up during the Depression, where they saw their parents lose their farms, businesses and jobs, and where they had to face an unknown future with little hope. They learned to persevere, to contribute, to help meet the basic needs of their families, to share and to understand the importance of neighbors and communities working together to survive. And they learned the most important value: personal responsibility. These are the men and women we honor today; and though we say they made the ultimate "sacrifice" by giving their lives to secure our nation, I wonder if they would call it something else — a sense of duty.

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John W. Gardner said, "One purpose of social change is to find new solutions that will preserve old values." That challenge becomes daunting today in a society that is more complex and in constant change. Unlike the "greatest generation" we honor today, where they all experienced the same hardships and common dangers, this generation is more divided by economic class, more impersonal and with a growing belief there is no need to sacrifice or to persevere. It seems like it is more of an "I got mine and forget the other guy" society. We live in a society where there is more opulence and a sense of entitlement and demand for instant gratification. Most alarming, we are losing the sense of personal responsibility that was the hallmark of the "greatest generation." Is this the legacy we want to pass on to the next generation?

Just as those of the "greatest generation" are a reflection of their times, so are the individuals of this generation. While the former had the values that won wars and made our country the leader for the industrial era, the question is, will this generation, with its values, have the capacity to move our country forward in the new era of globalization?

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