A Veteran’s Reflections
Born in the 1930s, raised in the 1940s, rebelled in the 1950s, and settled down in the 1960s. The decades that followed shaped the person I would become.
My earliest memories take me back to elementary school, to a time when the world was a vastly different place. World War II was still raging in Europe and the Pacific. Its wounds were fresh, its casualties still mounting, and its human toll measured in daily reports of lives lost, fresh graves dug, and tombstones, their newly hewn surfaces glistening in the sun.
I remember patriotism, the solemn ceremonies honoring the living and memorializing our fallen heroes. There were so many of them—far too many.
The ceremony began in the schoolyard with the presentation of the colors red, white, and blue. Then came the reading of verses from Arthur Macy’s The Flag, as aging veterans of the Spanish-American War, dressed in their full military uniforms, marched to the poem’s solemn cadence.
Here comes The Flag!
Hail it!
Who dares to drag
Or trail it?
Next came the recitation of scriptural admonitions, words drawn from the prophets, warning future generations the consequences of folly, foolishness, and the abandonment of moral responsibility.
Fast forward to the 60’s. It launched a new age, one of conflict, rebellion and upheaval. My U.S. Army service during the Vietnam War gave me an appreciation for America that goes well beyond patriotism. It taught me that liberty is not something to be taken for granted; it is something that must be protected and defended continuously, while recognizing our responsibility to preserve our freedoms for future generations.
To all the Vietnam veterans, I say “Welcome Home Brother.”
But times change and Bob Dylan’s song “The Times They Are a-Changin’” heralded in a new age. It captured the generational upheaval of the 1960s. The traditions, values, and unquestioned authority that had shaped our parents’ world were being challenged by a younger generation demanding change. It was a declaration that the old order was giving way to something new, and none of us would emerge untouched.
History teaches us that change is a two-sided coin: it can bring progress or decline, for better or for worse.
Today’s seismic changes reflect a profound shift in America’s cultural, political, and moral foundations. We are witnessing growing political polarization, declining respect for traditional institutions and democratic norms, the erosion of shared values, ideological divisions replacing civil discourse, and an increasing willingness to subordinate individual responsibility and national interests to competing ideological agendas. The result is a country increasingly divided over its identity, its values, and its future.
Do not despair. Hope remains, and there is still time to correct our course. But do we possess the wisdom to recognize what must change and the will to make it happen?
I hope so, for our sake and for the generations that follow.