A generation proves critics were wrong

High school graduation is upon us. Once again we will engage in the annual ritual of evaluating this generation, their teachers and their parents. Undoubtedly, there will be headlines about proficiency exam failures, dropouts and a lack of academic excellence. We will blame the teacher's union, the parents, the principals and a general lack of moral fiber in this country.

Two years ago at about the same time of year, I was listening to a certain conservative pundit and radio talk show host who tends to rush to judgment. The topic of discussion was the status of our young people, the status of our educational system and the tragic failure of the baby boomers as parents.

The general consensus of both the talk show host and the callers was that this generation is a bunch of spoiled, whiny, illiterate brats. They were the result of a failed education system that placed too much emphasis on self-esteem and not enough on discipline. They were the victims of self-centered baby-boomer parents, single-parent homes and working mothers.

The point made repeatedly in this discussion was that God forbid the United States should go to war because this generation of young people would not fight. They were weak, both physically and mentally. They had lived a pampered existence, spoiled by their parents, and they could not or would not withstand the rigors of war. To make things worse, they were not sufficiently literate or educated to do the job required by today's military.

At this time, my daughter was a senior in high school, and her friends hung out at our home, so I knew them as well as one can know any 17 year old. Her friends cut across all racial and socio-economic lines. They came from professional homes, working-class homes and no-class homes. They came from intact marriages, single-parent homes and adoptive-homes and, in some cases, no home.

As I thought about each one of them, I came to the conclusion that the pundit was not rushing in the right direction.

This is not to say that these kids were personifications of teenage perfection. No, no, they had an assortment of problems, vices and defects. In fact, there was not a perfect one among them, but, generally speaking, each one of them had some good basic values, even though periodically the scavenger of teenage hormones stripped them of any shred of common sense.

Well, Operation Iraq Freedom has proven me right and Rush left. This generation fought with restraint to change the face of tyranny and torture to the face of opportunity and freedom. It yet remains to be seen what the politicians will do with this opportunity.

Awad Nasir, an Iraqi poet, who until recently was exiled in London, wrote a thank-you letter to the American people published in the Wall Street Journal on May 8, in which he said,

"It was not mullahs of Tehran and their Islamic Revolutionary Guards who liberated the Iraqi Shiites. Nor was it Turkey's army that came to rescue the Iraq Turkomans from Saddam's clutches. Ami Moussa, the Arab League's secretary general and the corrupt regimes he speaks for, did not liberate Iraqi Arab nationalists.

"No, believe it or not, Iraqis of all faiths, ethnic backgrounds and political persuasions were liberated by young men and women who came from the other side of the world -- from California, Wyoming, from New York, Glasgow, London Sydney and Gdansk -- to risk their lives, and for some to die, so that my people can live in dignity."

There were a few young men and women there from Nevada, as well.

Certainly, it is arguable that this was not World War II, Korea or Vietnam. We can thank God for that blessing, and we can thank the technology that has been developed in the last 10 years or so that allows us to win a war quickly and with relatively few lives lost. I am willing to bet that those who have graduated from high school in the past 10 years have had a hand in developing this technology.

This year, as we enter our annual ritual of self-examination, we should give our graduates, our schools and our parents a little credit. Oh yes, there is plenty of room for improvement, and we need to continue to strive to be better, but given how our troops conducted themselves in Operation Iraq Freedom, we must have done something right.

Linda E. Johnson is a wife, mother and attorney, and has lived in Carson City for 28 years.