Different times require new solutions for new people

Another time, another place

Different times?

Different places?

Maybe, but the truly sad part of it all is that we are different people than we were 70-80 years ago.

We have heard the so-called "Greatest Generation" praised so much it's almost painful, and it is not my intention to do that here.

They were different, though. Mostly because they had to be. When you grow up during the Great Depression and the Second World War, you learn quickly there are things you have to do and things you have to do without.

When there's no money for food, you go hungry. Or you get in line for bread or soup. And given the way you were brought up, you feel somewhat guilty over not being able to support yourself.


If you lived in the U.S., you didn't have to fear for your life during WWII. In fact, less than 4 percent of those serving in the military either in Europe or the Pacific were killed. You had well over a 90 percent chance of coming home alive and unwounded.

In fact, both the U.S. and the United Kingdom had deaths totaling less than 1 percent of their population. We had about 12,000 non-military deaths, most of them Merchant Marine, and the U.K. had more than 67,000, the bulk of them killed in the Blitz.

It would have been a lot more, but the English followed instructions, spending nights in the Underground when German bombers were overhead, sending their children as far away as Canada to keep them safe and putting up with the privations of wartime.

Actually, our bloodiest war was when we fought ourselves, and the bloodiest day in American history was Sept. 17, 1862, when there were 23,000 casualties (3,650) dead at the Battle of Antietam. Much of the fighting was in a cornfield, with ripened cornstalks taller than men creating a situation where it was not uncommon for bayonet-wielding soldiers taking a step forward finding themselves face to face with the enemy.

For all our talk about exceptionalism, it's amazing we have hung together as long as we have. For the most part, we don't really like each other very much. Particularly on the right side of the political spectrum, the way they win elections is by demonizing the other side.

It's difficult to imagine hardcore Trumpanzees accepting Joe Biden as president, and it's equally difficult to see folks on the other side submitting to four more years of Trump.

The thing that makes finding common ground so difficult is that a lot of what used to be common ground no longer exists.

People who once worked together in community organizations now are working hard to keep their own lives together. It's also possible to believe that the end of the peacetime draft was a big factor. Perhaps replacing it with two years of national service would give millions more young people a feeling of having skin in the game.

That might actually change things for the better.