Silence Is Not Always Golden

The Greatest Generation was, for the most part, silent about their exploits, courage and sacrifice. The same is true for Korea and Vietnam veterans. I think that was a grave error. That well intentioned silence spawned a generation with little national pride who had nothing patriotic to pass on to their children and now we have a population ignorant of the preciousness of freedom and its cost in human terms. Instead of protecting the young from the horror of war as they intended, it has almost certainly set the stage for a repeat as this new generation must relearn what their fathers and grandfathers learned in foxholes and on the beaches. The capacity for carnage and the price of freedom has expanded exponentially since then.
---William Fortner 2010---