Fw: I talked to a man today

Real "food for thought". Thank you Nancy for forwarding it on. Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nancy Turlington" <turlingtonn@hotmail.com>
To: "Nancy Turlington" <turlingtonn@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 8:44 PM
Subject: I talked to a man today

I talked to a man today By C. J. Aragon

I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was
anything I can get him while this Coronavirus scare was gripping America.
He simply smiled, looked away and said:
"Let me tell you what I need! I need to believe, at some point, this country
my generation fought for... I need to believe this nation we handed safely to our
children and their children...
I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies...that they
respect what they've been given...that they've earned what others sacrificed for."
I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere
at all. So, I sat there, quietly observing.
"You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We
didn't know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at the
end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans enjoy today.
And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every
street, had someone in harm's way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe their
son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole damn family...
fathers, sons, uncles...
Having someone, you love, sent off to war...it wasn't less frightening than it is today.
It was scary as Hell. If anything, it was more frightening. We didn't have battle front
news. We didn't have email or cellphones. You sent them away and you hoped...
you prayed. You may not hear from them for months, if ever. Sometimes a mother
was getting her son's letters the same day Dad was comforting her over their child's death.
And we sacrificed. You couldn't buy things. Everything was rationed. You were
only allowed so much milk per month, only so much bread, toilet paper.
EVERYTHING was restricted for the war effort. And what you weren't using, what
you didn't need, things you threw away, they were saved and sorted for the war effort.
My generation was the original recycling movement in America.
And we had viruses back then...serious viruses. Things like polio, measles, and such.
It was nothing to walk to school and pass a house or two that was quarantined. We
didn't shut down our schools. We didn't shut down our cities. We carried on, without
masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you know what? We persevered. We
overcame. We didn't attack our President, we came together. We rallied around the
flag for the war. Thick or thin, we were in it to win. And we would lose more boys in
an hour of combat than we lose in entire wars today."
He slowly looked away again. Maybe I saw a small tear in the corner of his eye.
Then he continued: "Today's kids don't know sacrifice. They think a sacrifice is not
having coverage on their phone while they freely drive across the country. Today's kids
are selfish and spoiled. In my generation, we looked out for our elders. We helped out
with single moms who's husbands were either at war or dead from war. Today's kids
rush the store, buying everything they can...no concern for anyone but themselves. It's
shameful the way Americans behave these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices
their granddads made.
So, no I don't need anything. I appreciate your offer but, I know I've been through
worse things than this virus. But maybe I should be asking you, what can I do to help
you? Do you have enough pop to get through this, enough steak? Will you be able to
survive with 113 channels on your tv?"
I smiled, fighting back a tear of my own...now humbled by a man in his 80's. All I
could do was thank him for the history lesson, leave my number for emergency and
leave with my ego firmly tucked in my rear.
I talked to a man today. A real man. An American man from an era long gone and
forgotten. We will never understand the sacrifices. We will never fully earn their
sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them..learn from them...to respect
them.

I saw this and it was to good not to share
Sent from my iPad=