Veterans Day Time Warp

If there had been an Internet and TV during World War II, would we still be honoring the Greatest Generation? If there had been millions of voices beyond the newspapers, radio and movies that informed us back then, could there have been a nation united in a common cause?

On the eve of Veterans Day, 60 Minutes issues an apology for its reporting on Benghazi, one incident in the long war against terrorism, that has racked us with partisan strife for a year, and armchair warrior Lindsey Graham threatens his own government shutdown over the issue.

Fighting a war for survival back then, could we have held together in the face of similar second-guessing to the nth degree through four years of sacrifice at every level of American society in every community?

Back then, soldiers came home to universal acclaim, a GI Bill of Rights for education and government help with buying homes in the new suburbs. The Baby Boomers prospered.

Today, we celebrate “progress” in reducing the total of 76,000 homeless veterans in January 2009 to fewer than 63,000 last year. We all give lip service to those who serve their country but we don’t put money where our mouths are.

The speeches will all ring with patriotic fervor, but talk is cheap.