THE GREATEST GENERATION

"I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being. – Jackie Robinson"

As I was thinking about something to write about today,  I got to thinking about things my generation had done to make this a better world.  Oh there were things to write about for sure.  Race equality,  technological advancement just to name a couple.  As I have already mentioned in an earlier post, when I was young,  blacks had separate  restrooms, separate drinking fountains, separate schools and separate lunch counters.  We lived in separate neighborhoods and went to separate churches.  That last statement brings to mind a time  when I suggested to the church I was attending that we should reach out to the black people that were moving into our neighborhood to join with us in worship.   I was quickly told we couldn't do that because "black people worshiped different than us."  Now when I look around I see churches having all different kinds of worship services.  Some even have one type service early, (some call it spirit filled) and then a traditional service at the 11:00 hour.  Who are these churches serving?  The people or God?  Don't get me wrong....I'm not putting the church down...I love churches.  I just think maybe sometimes they need to look at themselves and worry about that beam and eye verse in the Bible.  And then the technology.  I remember the first hand held calculator I saw cost close to a $100 .00.  Now you can buy them for less than a dollar.  The advancements we've made in our generations time kind of  makes you proud doesn't it?  But as I was thinking I started to compare my generation to my fathers.  And the more I compared, and the more I thought, the more I realized that we've lost something.  I think we've lost something called pride in a job well done and a thing we call respect for our fellow man.
My dad was a bread man.  He ran a bread route.  Was this his job?  Not at all....This was his career.  He worked hard 6 days a week.  He made a good living for his family.  He was employed by Colonial Bakery and yes,  "HE WAS A COMPANY MAN. " No, he wasn't union, if fact he was against unions.  But he loved Colonial Bakery and you could see it in his work.  Every time we went into a store, no matter if it was on the other side of Atlanta or on vacation in Daytona  Beach, the first thing he did was go to the bread rack and make sure the Colonial Bread was pulled to the front and straight.  I once asked why he did this.  He said because he knew some other Colonial Bread man was straightening bread in one of his stores.  It was a pride thing with him.  It's what you do, so you do it right.  The second thing that we've lost some of is respect for others.  As you know if you've read my post, Leon was one of my best friends growing up and Leon was black.  Leon's dad was named Miles Howard.  Mr. Howard, and dad insisted I call him Mr. Howard, would do odd jobs around the neighborhood.  Dad once hired him to tear our old driveway out and install a new driveway.  He didn't have jack hammers or tractors to remove the old concrete.  Just had a pick and sledge hammer. Even as a young boy I could tell this was work I wanted no part of.  But Mr. Howard worked at it everyday until he was finished.  And a darn good job he did too.  After Mr Howard finished the job did my dad and Mr Howard become great friends?  Did they go out to dinner together?  Of course not.  As I've said before it was a different time.  They weren't fast friends, they were raised different.  I guess you could say My dad and Mr. Howard didn't worship the same way.  But they did have something in common.  They respected one another. They both worked hard and they both loved their families. 
They called my dads generation "the greatest generation."  Is this the right name for them?  You must decide if this name fits.  No doubt they did great things, but if you take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle and list their accomplishments on one side of the paper and my generations on the other,  my generations list of accomplishments will far outnumber my fathers.  The big difference is they added their accomplishments to their previous generations with pride and respect.  I'm afraid we might have left these two things out of some of our accomplishments.
To my Grandchildren:  No matter what you chose to do in life,  do it with pride.  If you do it, do it right.  And respect that fellow man.   No matter what his career is, it's important.

I love you!!!