Today's Generation vs. Men Like Dat and Little Joe

I’m in Boston’s Logan Airport, listening to our President give a speech about Veterans. As I sit in Johnny Rocket’s, a place to get an awesome retro burger off the grill, I realize that this is the first Veteran’s Day without my grandfather, Josh Cruise, a.k.a, “Dat.” I gave him the handle “Dat-Dat” as a lady boy back in the 70’s. I guess I could not say Granddad. I don’t know, but it stuck.

Dat fought in WW2. He was an amazing man. He did not talk of the war much, but for some reason, he’d always tell me things when I’d ask. I guess a young boy doesn’t understand that many vets would just rather move on. Yet those stories fascinated me. Fighting in France. Walking on the sand of Normandy Beach. Staying in bombed out houses. Trading famous actress Marlene Dietrich his German Luger for a fifth of whiskey. Hearing him talk about guys named Little Joe, who carried his pillow in his backpack through the war. Staying in the cold snows of the German forest.

I have to wonder … does my generation have the guts those guys did? Honestly, I don’t think so. Overall, I don’t think my generation has the commitment to America that they did. I really don’t. I believe we’ve far too long listened to Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Bill Maher, and Bill Clinton instead of listening to Teddy Roosevelt, Oliver North, Ronald Regan, or Norman Schwartzkof. Why Oliver North? Wasn’t he the guy who lied to Congress? Yes. But he was literally taking the hit for the team. He let himself be the scapegoat … think about it … if what he did was so wrong, why did he receive so little punishment? (Because the government let him go lightly if he’d be the face to take the fall for Iran Contra.) What he did was honorable by taking the fall, not in lying, but in being loyal to go down with the ship.

The way I see it, most of America is like Sheryl Crow, who said, “I believe the best way to avoid war is to not have enemies.” Well Sheryl that’s great – sounds good. Feels good. If this were a college class on being politically correct … great gravy you’d get a 100 A+ with a smiley face. What happens, though, Sheryl, when people decide that whether or not you like it, they are just going to hate you and fly planes into your buildings, bomb your ships called the USS Kohl, and bomb your embassy buildings.

How do you negotiate with a group of people who say that the first point of the negotiating process is that you must die?!!

How do you treat that democratically? Sheryl’s a great singer, and a seemingly fine person, but God save us from this cancerous liberal mentality.

Honestly, I believe that most liberals today will stand by why our nation is just taken from us one piece at a time. Just standing there saying, “Please don’t be so mean. Let’s talk about this.” I wonder how successful Sean Penn’s movie career would be if he were to move to Iran and seek movie contracts there? He could, it’s a free country and he’s free to leave it. I wonder how well her songwriting and performing career would be if Natalie Maines and her other Dixie Chicks tried being country artists in Afghanistan?
I’m not speaking hate. I’m just asking some questions. I’m saying that the way we get to be free is through being the strongest people on earth who can preserve it. You keep your freedom through the threat of war.

Free nations do not attack free nations. That’s a historical truth. There has never been, in the history of the world, a democratically free country who has attacked another free country. Look it up and see for yourself. Yet to keep that freedom, we have to return to being men like my Dat and his fellas with him like Little Joe.

It’s those great men who gave us this freedom, and we’d better find more like them for our future because when we leave Iraq, there will be other 9/11 days in our future, and it’s then that we’ll have to look deep within to see if we have what it takes to preserve this country we call home.