Dear Editor:
Ever since NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw declared those born in the teens and twenties “the greatest generation of the 20th century,” it has been challenging to try living up to that image.
Mercifully, perhaps, it is now possible to relax a little, thanks to news emanating from some city halls, some provincial electoral politics, corporate boardrooms and executive offices, the Prime Minister’s office and the adjuncts of the senate chamber.
A motivational speaker is now being sought for those who toil there.
Brokaw’s “greatest generation” had a motivational speaker, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, who proclaimed on May 10, 1940, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, sweat and tears. But we shall not flinch or falter, we shall not flag or fail… Let us, therefore address ourselves to our several duties and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth should last a thousand years, men will still say that this was their finest hour.”
“Greatest.” “Finest.” What labels will fit those now making headlines? Losers, connivers?
Will the money they made be worth the price they have paid?
A common expression in use between 1930 and 1950 simply said, “Pull up your socks.”
Dick Clements
Summerland
