To the Editor:
The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, bringing the United States into an already raging World War, thousands of men enlisted in the armed services, prepared to go to war, to defend their nation. Many of them who may never have ever left their hometown would go to die bravely half way around the world on islands in the middle of the Pacific or deep in the European countryside.
They are seen now as heroes of the world, and as Tom Brokaw refers to them by a term that has since been entered into our own lexicon, "the Greatest Generation." But on Sept. 12, were men lined up around the block to enlist to fight in the war on terror? They were not. Recruitment officers did report a rise in interest in enlisting, but nothing that compared to the days following Pearl Harbor and the declaration of War against the Axis Powers.
The security of our nation has been compromised, thousands are dead and the end of the terror attacks may not be over. However, many of this generation of college age seem apathetic or hesitant about joining the military in order to do their part to defend the U.S. We must not let the generation of our grandfathers and grandmothers who fought for freedom a half-century ago down. We must not let the future generations of our children and grandchildren down.
We must not let our country down. We must not let ourselves down. It is time to become the next greatest generation.
