For those few of us who were alive and aware during World War II, this current hysteria over the financial crisis that is turning the preponderance of Conservatives and Progressives into a mob of angry two-year-olds with diaper rash must have all of us dissolved in disbelief.
Granted, I was pretty young during the war years, but the memories are indelible.
Things were scarce or not available at all. Everyone had a ration card and if you used up your sugar allotment for the month and you wanted to bake a cake....tough!
Most of the young and youngish men were in uniform. Today, except for military career officers, those defending us are the poor or the Pat Tillman-like patriots. Back then, everyone was a patriot.
If anyone complained about something, the standard observation was: "Quit your bellyaching. Don't you know there is a war on?"
Birthday presents were almost always War Bonds or a book of U.S. Savings Stamps which you saved up to buy a Bond in support of your country.
Sacrifice was made without question. Everyone, even kids, did their bit...even if it was just collecting the tin foil from cigarette packets and rolling it into a ball that got sent....somewhere, I never knew....to make bullets or something the soldiers needed.
Making do was done with a kind of pride that would truly flummox today's citizens who have indulged themselves to capacity and beyond.
When the worst deprivation in your life is having to pay income tax to support everything that makes living in this country worthwhile, it is impossible for anyone who survived "the War" years to feel anything much beyond contempt.
Pull up your socks, American citizens. Put your heads down and press on, regardless!We successfully kept the foreign enemies from our front door; we can defeat the domestic wolves that are trying to beat down our back door.
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