AMERICAN VALUES

It seems in the world today, the kids in their late teens and early twenties are called the “9/11 Generation”. Chuch Raasch, a writer for the Gannett News Service wrote a small piece about the 9/11 Generation based on the experience of relating to his own son on their college tour this summer. This is some of what he said:

“At 17, my biggest worries had been about the draft. Boys a couple of years older were in Vietnam and the war had dragged beyond understanding. The draft wound down my senior year in high school and officially ended 45 days after my 18th birthday. Then, I could not envision any 18-year-old volunteering during a war.

But 18-year-olds are signing up for Iraq, Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terrorism. In North Carolina, news came that 21-year-old Marine Enrique Henry Sanchez of Garner, N.C., had died in Iraq. His grandmother told The Associated Press that the boy had so much wanted to be a Marine he had lost 150 pounds by dieting and running with an 80-pound backpack.

Stories like that make you realize that commitment and sacrifice are the province of no generation, not even the "Greatest Generation" made famous in the World War II nostalgia literature.

Some call those born after 1980 the 9/11 generation. Sept. 11 is a fixture but not a fixation. It has been a fact of childhood that terrorists threaten civilization, and may always, but that life goes on.

The 9/11 generation is both traditional and iconoclastic. Talking heads often depict it as selfish and disengaged, often symbolized by the empty pursuits of Paris Hilton. In fact, according to social scientists, Generation Y has a respect for community and authority that makes it more akin to the 18-year-olds on the beaches of Normandy than the Y Generation's baby boomer parents”

Wow, that’s some powerful stuff. Makes you feel good about kids today and give rise to hope that all is not lost in this country.

Unless you’re a Democrat.

Seems there’s a Democrat think tank out there called the Truman National Security Project. It has in it’s membership the usual band of suspect, Madeline Albright, John Podesta, Peter Singer, etc. and this is what it says about itself:

“The Truman National Security Project is a movement bringing together Democrats who believe in a strong foreign policy grounded in the strong values that make us Democrats. We believe that progressive values and strong national security policy are two sides of the same coin—and must be brought together.

We unite Americans nationwide who believe in strong security, and strong Democratic values. With this network we develop policy positions and communications tools to help political leaders in the Beltway, and politicians across the country, articulate Truman Democratic ideals.”

"[P]rogressive values and strong national security policy are two sides of the same coin"? Maybe a Chuck E. Cheese token.

The founder of the Truman National Security Project is one Rachel Kleinfeld is this is how she described the 9/11 Generation:

"They are much more sexually conservative than the generation before them. They are much more religious than the generation before them. They are very community-oriented. Their numbers on community orientation are like those of the greatest generation, the World War II generation. They are extremely loving of their parents. Many of them call their parents their best friends. And they are also very respecting of authority, but not all types of authority."

To sum up her feelings on this:

"This generation, the baby boomlet, is a very odd generation..."

Only a Democrat would find traditional, American values “very odd”.