Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Oh, Yeah, Kids
These Days
We can be reasonably sure that in 1939 parents in Canada
and England and the rest of the Empire and the Dominions dismissed their
teenaged children as lazy good-for-nothings without values or ambition. Kids
these days, eh?
Similarly, we can be reasonably sure that in 1941
American parents wrote off their young’uns with much the same words. Kids these
days, eh?
And that’s okay; those who survived the war dismissed
their own children as idlers and slackers (which in my case was accurate). Kids
these days, eh?
Last week a couple of sixteen-year-olds in Iowa were
arrested for murdering a middle-aged woman, and the reactions on the InterGossip
were both immediate and predictable, variations on the old “kids these days,
eh?”
First of all, the thoughtful citizen will bear in mind
the wisdom and logic in the Constitution – the two boys have been arrested, but
an arrest is only a formal accusation, not a conviction. By the Grace of God,
the InterGossip is not God, nor is it a court; it is mostly a bunch of grouchy
old people yammering.
And second, even if these two boys committed the murder,
they define nothing but their own errant behavior. They definitely do not define
a generation because, Tom Brokaw notwithstanding, a generation cannot be
defined. It can be stereotyped, but not defined. As Margaret More asks in A Man for All
Seasons, “What’s the man?” And we can add, “What’s the woman?”
Let us consider thirteen young Americans who are far more
representative of the rising generation, thirteen young Americans who were
killed last summer while serving humanity in helping refugees escape from
Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
We have all seen the photograph of Marine Corps Sergeant
Nicole Gee cradling an infant amid the chaos at the airport in Kabul when
everything fell apart. The picture is
not a government propaganda photograph; if it were it would be of better
quality. This is just a snapshot one of her fellow Marines forwarded to
her. She sent it by email to her parents
with the words, “I love my job!”
“I love my job.”
Those may have been the last words this United States
Marine - with her hair tied back in a ponytail - said to her mom and dad.
She was only 23. Some of her fellow Marines were only 20.
Kids these days, eh?
They might have been on the same bus route with our kids.
On the 26th of August Sergeant Gee and the
others who were killed with her almost surely did not think of themselves as
great Americans; they were too busy BEING great Americans. They would
have thought of themselves as only doing their jobs in the heat and dust and violence
of Afghanistan, helping civilians escape being murdered by the Taliban.
That’s what almost all young people would do. No one
should dismiss any generation with cheap and shabby stereotypes. Your teenager and
the goofy kid next door and the pimply oaf who can’t get your hamburger order
right would risk their lives – and someday may well have to do so - to carry a
baby amid the screams and terror and dust and heat to safety and then return to
the perimeter for another child or young mother or old man or anyone who needed
their help.
That’s what these thirteen young people did.
The oldest by far was Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T.
Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah. 31
might seem old, but, yeah, he was young.
Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, another woman
Marine, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts
Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento,
California
Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California
Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska
Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport,
Indiana
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio
Bravo, Texas
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St.
Charles, Missouri
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson,
Wyoming
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho
Cucamonga, California
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco,
California
Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights,
Ohio
Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton,
Tennessee.
Now there is a generation. They were killed in a
scene of horror by a mad bomber who chose hate instead of love. His hate killed
those 13 young Americans and wounded some 30 others who were saving lives,
and killed and wounded possibly 200 or more Afghans.
One unhappy young man chose hate. That poor (wretch) doesn’t define (poop).
But our young people chose love, the love Jesus spoke of
when he said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends.”
And these young Americans gave up their lives for people
they didn’t even know.
No greater love indeed.
We have spoken of these 13, but let us remember this:
every young American in Kabul that day was saving lives – they were helping terrified
people get to the airplanes, helping them to safety.
That is also the story of just about every American
soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, or Coast Guard who ever served.
We absurd old people were once young – maybe when
dinosaurs roamed the earth – and we know that every veteran and almost every
American at some time has given up some of his own poor rations to help feed
children, given up some of his time and sleep and effort in helping those who are
hungry or displaced.
But that’s every generation’s story, to serve humanity.
The exceptions are irrelevant. Dang it, we’re good, and we don’t allow idiots
to define us.
In some way, in some place, in some time – as a soldier,
a police officer, a volunteer firefighter, a paramedic, or as a good American
civilian who stands tall when needed and helps the community in some way, all
of us serve humanity. We may not be called to carry a child to safety from
Kabul Airport or from a wrecked car or from a burning building, but we will
surely be called to help feed children or teach children in Sunday School or
kick in a little something for the Kirbyville Christian Outreach food pantry or
help out with the elementary school’s reading program.
There’s an old Army National Guard recruiting slogan that
says:
It wasn’t always easy
It wasn’t always fair
But when freedom called we answered
We were there
That’s who you are, and that’s who the kids are. Don’t
dismiss them. Don't stereotype them.
Don't underestimate them.
-30-
