Stephen Aaron is a 23-year-old staffer on the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee, and I’m going to let him write my column
because I think the letter he sent me last week deserves wide attention
following the historic events of recent days.
Aaron is a native of Greer, S.C., and a 2003 graduate of Clemson University,
where he majored in political science. He worked on Rep. Jim DeMint’s
(R-S.C.) Senate campaign before joining the committee staff in March.
He plans to return to South Carolina in a few years, to become a wildlife
lobbyist. His comments reflect only his own views.
The past two weeks in Washington have been a celebration of greatness.
With the dedication of the World War II Memorial and the 60th anniversary
of D-Day, and the death of President Reagan, it has been a time of
remembering great acts, great people, and great generations.
All of this has caused me to wonder, how will my generation be remembered?
Men five years my junior stormed the beaches of Normandy, fought and
died there and at the Battle of the Bulge and a hundred other battlefields,
and saved the world from the tyrannical grips of fascist evil. And
they fought and died for their country in Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon
and other conflicts.
I do not claim to know much of war, even though both my grandparents
fought in World War II. But the soldiers who died for their love of
liberty have been hailed as heroes and celebrated for decades. Now
the greatest of my generation, who are fighting for that same love
of liberty, have been forsaken by their own generation.
Most of my generation would rather fight for a demographic right to
marry than for the liberty that protects them. Most of my generation
would rather fight over who knew what about Sept. 11 than chase down
its perpetrators. Most of my generation would rather fight for their
“right to choose,” while denying it to the innocent, than
place their own lives on the line so that this and future generations
may enjoy the same free choices. Have we lost our love of liberty
or forgotten that our right to choices was paid for by the blood of
those great Americans who have gone before us?
To the family members of the greatest of my generation, who have made
the ultimate sacrifice or been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, I
want to say thank you.
To all the soldiers still fighting, thank you for understanding that
there are some things greater than ourselves, and being willing to
die to ensure the next
generation’s liberties and right to choices.
As for my generation, the bar has been raised, and we must ask ourselves,
how will we be remembered? Will we be defined by MTV and the Internet,
for witnessing Sept. 11 and then forsaking the men and women of our
generation who are bringing the perpetrators to justice, or for rallying
behind the cause that propelled the soldiers who landed on Normandy,
my grandfathers, and many of yours.
Can we rise above our pessimism and partisanship to unite behind a
cause greater than any one of us? How many of us are still willing
to “pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
Honor” for another human, another race, another people? Both
of my grandfathers and their generation saved the world; may we never
forget what they did or be afraid to strive for a fraction of their
greatness.
