Defining a Generation

These wars will define our generation. Shape our future. The results will become our destiny. And determine our legacy. How we as a society react to the changes wrought by such conflicts will determine our nation's path for generations to come. Stories of our friends and family participating or being effected by these conflicts will be told to our children and grandchildren much as tales of World War 2 and Vietnam were told to us. The Senators, Representatives, Governors, Mayors, Presidents, Secretaries among us will determine policies based on our reactions to these times. Musicians, Comedians, Actors, Directors from our ranks will create the living thoughts and feelings in sound and picture, word and glance.

Our generation stands on the precipice of greatness. Like generations before us. We are on the cusp of rising to power in every way imaginable. In every corner of society. From politics to music. From art to religion. We stand with the potential to be the next Greatest Generation.

Like our grandfathers in World War 2 we fought today on two fronts. We never gave up the fight no matter how desperate it looked. Though the despair came not because of the power of the enemy in military might but in the power of the enemy to destroy our image to our very families back home. In that way our two fronts were not Iraq and Afghanistan, but the war and the media. We fought. Brave and true we fought.

On both fronts there were casualties and we mourn them as every soldier does, but on we fought. We won the favor of our families back home and fought all the harder to win the conflict abroad.

Our generation that did not fight the conflicts abroad fought hard nonetheless. They also fought on the front of the media. While soldiers were fighting the enemy abroad, our generation fought the deplorable image cast upon past generations. "We are different" became the unspoken battle cry of millions. We will not fall to hatred and corruption as past generations have. We will stand strong and resolute. We recognize that no war abroad can be won without the support of those left behind. In that regard we resembled the Greatest Generation and in so doing remembered what greatness felt like. What it tasted like.

We stand now on the cusp of victory in these great conflicts. And with this victory comes the glimmer of hope that the great War on Terror can actually be won.

Our generation can do it. We must do it. For our friends. For our families. For our children and their children. In memory of our fathers and their fathers. We can not and must not fail.

Let us now, so close to the end, not lose heart. Let us not lose focus and drift off into mediocrity. Let us continue our fight towards greatness. With the glimmer of hope for an end in sight we can not stray.

We must press on.