Be sure to thank your grandparents

[Loonman]

Both of them. The old Vet you see in the coffeeshop this weekend, too.

[nini]

1. Absolutely!

I'll honor my Dad's service by placing a flag on his grave tomorrow. His stories of WWII were amazing and I thank those soldiers that sacrificed so much.

[adriennel]

2. anyone prefer grandparents over parents?

I do. I adore my grandparents (Great Depression, WWII). We seem to have more in common that I do with my parents (baby-boomers)

[cjbuchanan]

3. All my grandparents have died

But we sent a card to my wife's grand folks thanking them.

We do it every year. Just as a little reminder.

[DoBotherMe]

4. As a member of Vietnam generation

I feel that my parents and grand parents sold us down the river. They are charter members of Nixon's 'silent majority' who have promulgated and are complicit in the creation and maintenance of the racist, hateful philosophy of the rightwing. These old farts are the ones who continue to listen hate radio, drink the koolaid, and pass on the insanity to the young. Dana ; )

[liberalhistorian]

11. And if it weren't for those "old farts"

we and the rest of the world would be speaking German right now and living under a Nazi regime, the horror of which you simply cannot begin to imagine. We owe our very freedom to WWII vets.

My own grandfather already had a family at that time, but he had brothers and friends who served, some of whom never returned. And one of his sons, my dad's brother, was a Marine in Vietnam who fortunately returned.

[DoBotherMe]

18. My dead uncle has a Silver Star

for valor as a platoon leader in battle at Anzio plus a Purple Heart. My mother's other brothers, 7 of them, all SERVED in WWII or Korea my father was a fighter pilot in Korea and a NASA test pilot. I probably shouldn't have lumped all the oldtimers in my rant. But even my heroic uncle was in favor of sending his son to Vietnam to die for nothing (my cuz had a high lottery # though). And this whole clan including my mother were racist. They are Nixon's 'silent majority." I do honor the veterans of wars for their bravery and honor ... but as adults the WWII and Korean War era Americans have willfully hurt us younger Americans even when we asked them not to. Dana ; )

[kcwayne]

5. I don't pine wistfullly for the "Greatest Generation"

While the sacrifices some of them made to fight in Europe were laudable, they were blind to the same racism back home they were fighting against in Europe, and they fought an overtly racist war in the Pacific.

The "Greatest Generation" had to have civil rights shoved up their ass with a two by four, and stood hard against some of the same people that had gone with them to fight battles for "American Freedom".

Ripping the culture away from them took many marches, deaths, imprisonments, including millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Koreans, and Chinese.

They held nuclear holocaust over the world as a rational and sane form of international diplomacy.

Many of them hated and abandoned their kids when those kids rejected the hypocrisy of the nation they grew up in, that preached about freedom and morality, yet at every corner embraced obscene injustices.

This generation won wars against tryants, and that was a great contribution. But they embraced the idea that it is a "white man's world", and left a legacy that is disgraceful at the same time.

[Loonman]

7. So we shouldn't have fought the Nazis, right?

?

[Bridget Burke]

8. Or the Japanese, either.

There was "overtly racist" propaganda disseminated here against them. And the internment of Japanese-Americans was shameful; although that decision was made by the generation older than those who were fighting.

Should we have just laughed off Pearl Harbor? Then maybe Hitler wouldn't have declared war against us.

Obviously, some here have "issues" with their elders. My father was in the 8th Air Force in WWII & was called back up for the cold war. He died more than 50 years ago in a plane crash.

[Loonman]

10. Ya gotta take the good with the bad sometimes

Being pissed at a generation that flourished 60 years ago is rather unseemly and juvenile.

[kcwayne]

14. And I think that acceptance

of the failures of morality and ethics that would be unacceptable today, except for the right wing that still embraces the same, puts one on the slippery slope of moral relativism.

Racism, and the willingness to kill millions over nationalistic propaganda is either wrong, or it is not. The fact that one wins miltary conquests over tyrants does not grant one the right to become a tryant.

[Loonman]

17. Send me a postcard from fantasy land

Or wherever it is you reside, the real world is far too rough.

[kcwayne]

20. Here's your postcard

Great Generation Victim

People like these know what a rough world is, unlike many mouthpieces sitting in obscurity behind a keyboard handing out insults without the fear of getting slapped senseless for being rude and condescending.

After seeing many events like this happen to themselves, as well as their parents and grandparents, they went to war just like their white counterparts, and were treated like dirt. They came back to "freedom" in a country that wouldn't let them eat in restaurants, ride in the front of the bus, or stay in hotels that were "white only". Barriers were erected barriers to prevent them from voting, they were expected to keep in "their place".

It is a rough world. Especially when its over populated by those who think that civilized behavior is a fantasy, and that they have no obligation not to inflict dire harm on others.

[kcwayne]

9. Read closer, I didn't say that, did I?

[AntiCoup2K4]

15. We wouldn't have had to...

If Prescott Bush's mother would have had an abortion.

Actually, we probably wouldn't have been in any of the other ill advised - not a goddamned thing to do with America - wars that followed either.

Can someone invent a time machine so we can go visit Great Granny Bush?

[nini]

16. and just think what our kids and grandkids will say of us

... for having all this crap happen under our watch. Can't blame every individual for everything. There were lots of people fighting the good fight or the civil rights years in the 60s etc never would have occured.

[BigMcLargehuge]

6. my grandparents are all gone

but I will put flowers on my Pepere's grave (Navy man, injured at Battle of Coral Sea) and visit with my Dad, Vietnam Vet (1961-1963)

[SmokingJacket]

12. Here are mine...

Grandfather was a radio operator in the Navy, his ship went down during a typhoon and he was lost as sea in 1944. My grandmother was a Wave, and she died in 1992.

Thanks, folks.

[geniph]

13. GRANDparents? My father and uncle are WWII vets

and my husband's a Vietnam combat vet himself. I'll thank Pop and Uncle Jack and my John.

My grandparents are all long gone. That's what happens when you're the youngest of 13 and you're in your mid-40s. I never knew any of them except my mother's father, who was meaner than a skilletful of rattlesnakes, and not a veteran.

[Mr. McD]

19. My grandfather fought in the Civil War (for the South)

My father was a WWI veteran.