The Next Generation
Many times, I have talked with like-minded friends about how they came to their beliefs about living in the United States about freedom about our responsibilities as citizens and so on. It is through these processes that our understanding of freedom and its cost is passed from generation to generation.
There have been times in the past few years when I have wondered and feared about the next generation of Americans if they will understand and value freedom the same way that my family and I do. Will they remember why this nation came to be? Will they understand what it means to stand in the Lincoln Memorial and read the Gettysburg Address? Will they remember why we went to Europe to fight in World War I and II?
Will they remember why we have sent men (and now women) off to fight in foreign lands?
Will they remember that freedom is not free?
This week, at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, a letter and a note left there in memory of those that gave their lives reminded me that the next generation hasnt forgotten what it means to be a citizen of the United States.
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