Tom Brokow is convinced that the Greatest Generation was that of the people that had endured the The Great Depression and then fought in WWII.

I hail those people, and my parents were of that generation. I am who I am because of that generation. I am also from the middle of the Baby Boomer generation…the ones that were coddled and told that they were to achieve greater strengths than those that came before us. We were the Viet Nam veterans, the new sex and drug generation that supposedly changed the world for all time. We were the Haight/Ashbury generation…The Beatles and Rock and Roll! We were also the largest generation in the history of the world thanks to returning soldiers going home to their families and their special girls after WWII.Apparently, The Greatest Generation forgot about the 1920′s…the sordid behaviors of the Flappers…the Speakeasies that were formed underground as the 18th Amendment prohibiting alcohol in the US. Yes they forgot the hash and heroin dens too. I remember those of The Greatest Generation telling my generation how worthless we were, that we will never amount to anything. However, we were also the generation of assorted souls that attended and graduated from colleges all over the world in number never seen and probably never will again. My generation is the one that is now at the top of government control over every country in this world. Yes, we have made mistakes…but many of those mistakes were inherited from The Greatest Generation. The division of countries of the world after
WWII- not by historical religion or tribe- but by the Colonial Powers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Yes, the Greatest Generation instituted the Marshall Plan…NATO and SEATO…but also the Iron Curtain and Communism. The Greatest Generation also gave strife again to the Middle East by making a new country for displaced people now known as Israel.
All sort of regional improprieties were now the seed for Nationalism in many regions of the world. Continuing killings in Ireland, Middle East, South East Asia, Central Asia, Soviet Union, China, the Koreans…unabated strife in Africa. These are all the problems handed to MY generation from the Greatest Generation.

World hunger, continuing social problems, religious strife, over population and yes…the OIL question. Energy consumption by the US and European countries, developing Third world economies and the economies of India and China bring us to the 21st century. How MY generation handles these complex problems and how MY generation hands future generations these problems…and with what consensus do MY generations see our children? We raised you and gave you unforeseen opportunities and definite abilities. This world has problems that seem uncontrollable or even intolerable. You, the youth of the world now have instant communication, by voice, picture and print. You have new abilities in this vast new opportunity of communications, to pass along ideas that even 20 years ago was unheard of. You have the ability to talk to people that you would never have been able to meet in a normal course of life.
You have the ability to talk about new ideas, solve problems and institute change. You have the ability now to change the course mankind…without strife or war. Educate yourself in this new era.
Education is power…the power to and the ability to set a new course of the 21st Century.

Yes, The Greatest Generation did change the world and they did it with the tools at hand in their generation. They made mistakes…they didn’t have the tools and knowledge that is garnered in todays world. With all that is available to us now…you…the youth of the world have the ability to NOT make the historical mistakes of the past. You have the ability to make the common man and his family realize that we are a common man. Our wants and needs are similar from nation to nation. We can live together in this world without the historical hatreds. YOU however will have to overcome that one commonality that still separates mankind. HATRED! HATRED has to be eradicated! Eradicate misconceptions and you will be well on your way to eradicate hatred. Eradicate hatred and Tom Brokow will have to edit ‘The Greatest Generation’ the Great Generation’ because YOU will be “The Greatest Generation!” That is your assignment for the 21st Century. Are you up to it?”

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