One hundred years ago

I am becoming quite fascinated with the decade between 1910 and 1920 as more TV series are set during that time period. It seems like it was during that decade that the modern world with which we are familiar began coming into being. The rise of things like telephones, airplanes, phonographs, film and other modern inventions paved the way for the world in which I grew up some 50 years later. World War I also led to some major changes that unfortunately led to World War II, both wars putting their stamp on the 20th century and forever changing the world. Unfortunately, they also led to changes with which we are still dealing today. The British Empire carved up the former Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I into artificial countries that lumped together tribes and peoples who have been inclined to hate each other and the end of World War II saw the creations of countries like Israel and Pakistan that remain flash points for political troubles today. The tensions in the Middle East are directly traceable to the ends of the World Wars, unfortunately. Still, I do find that the second decade of the 20th century seems to closely mirror what is going on today. Battles that were fought then are still being fought today, like workers rights, women's rights, class distinction and more. There was a very clear class divide back then. You had the titans of business like J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and others, and then you had the working class people fighting for unionization, women entering the workforce and fighting for the vote. Now you have women fighting for things like reproductive rights, people struggling against voter repression efforts and gays and immigrants fighting for rights as well, and you have a huge gulf between the haves and the have-nots, the worst it has been in probably a century or so. There are fascinating parallels between our time now and what was going on a century ago that makes me wonder if history runs in cycles. From where I sit, it sure looks that way.

THE GREATEST GENERATION

On a recent visit to my dad's grave, I looked around and saw a sea of flags on graves all around me. Walking around, I saw that the good majority of them were on the graves of men who had served in World War II. That generation is rapidly disappearing, as even the youngest men who would have served in it would be in their late 80s now. My own father, born in 1922, would be turning 91 this year if he were still alive. Sadly, he died in a car accident in 1961 when I was just 4. It wasn't until a few years ago that I finally got him a grave marker for which to place a flag that recognized his service in World War II as a Corporal/Military Policeman at a POW camp housing German prisoners stateside, among other things that he did during the war years. So it seems that the generation that Tom Brokaw dubbed "The Greatest Generation" is rapidly passing away and will be gone from our midst in the next decade or so. Even veterans of Vietnam are aging rapidly. Those who served in the early years of that conflict in the 1960s are in their 60s and 70s now. Korean War veterans are probably near 80 if not older by now and that is another generation that is passing away from us. I am quite in awe of the Greatest Generation, because they were quite modest about what they did, saving the world from tyranny. I saw the Ken Burns series "The War" and it was quite humbling to realize the extent to which World War II was fought. I have to sheepishly admit that I know painfully little of the Pacific campaign, having not learned a great deal about it in school. I heard about major battles in Europe like Anzio, Omaha Beach, the Battle of the Bulge and more, but places like Saipan, Tarawa, Burma, India, China and more are places of which I am ignorant of the role they played in the war years. I learned much watching "The War" and was frankly astonished at how extensive the Pacific campaign truly was. Those men who fought on both sides of the earth, in Europe and in the Pacific, have earned my undying respect and admiration for their tenacity and bravery. My hat's off to them for being so humble about the sacrifices that they made to make life better for my generation, the Baby Boomers, who had it relatively easy compared to that generation that was tempered by the Depression and World War II. We stand on the shoulders of giants who made our world possible, and every time I visit the cemetery now and see that sea of flags waving from their graves, I silently thank them for what they did for our nation and our world. To them, we owe a huge debt of thanks.