Why Were They Great?

       There's a book out about the four freedoms of everyone. It's titled THE FIGHT FOR FOUR FREEDOMS "What made FDR and the Greatest Generation truly great." The four freedom it talks about are Freedom from want and fear, and freedom of speech and religion. Neither our Congress nor our Supreme Court have been of great help in these matters of late.  It's a book I want to read.
       But it also got me to thinking about some thoughts I've had lately about the Greatest Generation. The Greatest Generation became great because of it's steadfast opposition to the Axes powers and won World War II. But it also became the Greatest Generation because of the GI Bill. It allowed any veteran who wanted to, to go to college for free.
       What that meant is that America became blessed with a great abundance of well educated men and women who drove the engines of industry that made America the Greatest Nation in the industrialized world. But without that educated generation we might not have reached the heights we did. And that's what I see as the greatest danger to our society and economy. That's because a college education is quickly becoming unaffordable to the average young person today.
       Except for the children of the wealthy, those who do finish college are so laden with debt, they will be years paying off those loans. There are far too many who, having started school, find it necessary to drop out for financial reasons, or never even try to go to school. Unfortunately in todays economy an untrained or undereducated person finds employment opportunities severely limited.
       The time has come for America to look into the possibilities of post high school education being free, just like it was for so many of the greatest generation. We just might find it would give America the same kind of lift it gave to the post WWII veterans. We need to do something other than argue among ourselves as to which party is correct and which isn't. Because that isn't getting us anywhere.
Why not give our young people a chance to prove they too can be great.