A Look Back...

I had the really good fortune to grow up at a really bad time.

I was born deep into World War Two, and harbor stark memories of the willful depravations my family suffered to do their part for the boys "over there."  

There was rationing for everything.  Coffee, sugar, beans, rice, meat and gasoline.  Even tires!  All the rubber had been diverted to the War effort.  I remember they had to extinguish the lights just in case the Nazis wanted to bomb us.

More than 55% of our Country's entire Gross National Product was focused on our winning this existential battle.  A battle between Good and Evil.  Toward the end of the War, as an example, the Ford Motor Co. was turning out a brand-new Mitchell B-25 bomber from it's Flint, Michigan plant every hour!  Built predominantly by women!  More than 3,000 of them!

When the War ended the boys all came home.  And then presumed to resume their previous lives.  They went to college.  They entered a trade.  They started rebuilding our post-War Country.  We were all full of pride at our collective accomplishment.  It had been tough on us all, our warriors and us.  There's of fighting the War, and ours of undergoing deprivation in their loyal support.  It changed us as a society.  It made us stronger.  We beat the Bad Guys and saved the world!  It forged us into a Nation of One, all having focused on winning, and now focused on living our lives.

And it was glorious.

Brand new car models started popping up in the showrooms.  New-fangled electric refrigerators with built-in icemakers astounded housewives.  Disneyland opened to rave reviews.  A new Interstate highway system started construction so we could travel anywhere, anytime.  Industrial production blossomed.  New home construction fought to keep up with ever-increasing demand.  Those who chose to build our new cars and refrigerators joined unions, which enabled them to buy homes.  The churches were full, the cash registers were ringing, our kids were getting educated and our Legislature was stocked up with patriots sworn to do the best for us, the citizens.

After WW2 more than 82% of our Congressmen were veterans.  As it well should be.  

We had undergone pain, we had shown the world who was on their side when they needed us, and now it was time to revel in our collective victory.

That was almost two generations ago.  And I'm afraid we've forgotten what it meant to be united toward a common goal.  What it meant to fight and die to protect our ideals.  Our way of life.  Our freedoms.  I'm afraid we've done what fathers and mothers should never do: try to keep their children from having to strive and suffer as hard as they did.  And in so doing, I'm afraid that we've raised a generation of pus*ies.  Of wimps.  Of people who think they're owed something.  And that owe no particular allegiance to the United States of America.  

Shocking!

I've stated before that I think we lost America that day back in 1975 we ended the draft.  When we stopped conscripted young men to defend our Country and began relying on an all-volunteer military.  Before that our young men and women would be sent off to secure freedom, and then come home and positively change the attitudes of mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles .  And in so doing we lost that sense of obligation we each owe to the Country that birthed us, and gave us the freedom 95% of the world does not offer.  

And to those who are protesting and complaining that the U. S. of A. isn't giving them enough stuff, I want them to stop and ask one simple question: If America sucks so bad, why are millions and millions of citizens of the world is beating a path to - and through - our borders?

And to those 200+ American cities which have self-declared as "sanctuaries" for illegal aliens, I offer the following warning:

Be careful for what you want.  You just might get it...