Currahee!

This is part of a radio broadcast made by Ed Murrow on the CBS broadcast of “This is London” which were made during the Battle of Britain.

After my week tribute to World War II, I was ready to move on to something else.  That readiness however, evaporated when I received “Band of Brothers” as a Christmas gift and when I started reading the biography of Churchill.  I have a feeling that it may be a while before I am ready to return to modern day.  I’ve written about World War II before and I have nothing new to say now.  I watched the first episode of the Brothers and I can never pinpoint my feelings at the end of it.  Am I emboldened, encouraged, jealous, depressed?  Obviously I am all of these things.  I am always annoyed when people wax nostalgic about past eras and how those were the ideal days.  But I have to agree that there are qualities that certain generations possess more than others.  Each age and era is different and hold different values.  It just happens that the values that I respect are those that were so prominently displayed and forced into existence by World War II.  Realizing of course, that I say this after every biography that I read, but earnestly meaning it now, I think that Winston Churchill lived during the most interesting and intriguing time in history.  He witnessed the end of the Victorian Era and high aristocracy in England, he saw and participated in the rise of Imperialism and saw Great Britain reap the benefits of the Industrial Revolution to become the most powerful nation on earth.  He watched the Old World clash with modernity in World War I and helped to rebuild the new world in its aftermath.  He was a close confidant of Lloyd George.  He navigated the world-wide depression of the thirties, watched Germany rebuild, watched Neville Chamberlain give Germany permission to rebuild, invade and conquer.  He inspired countrymen during the Battle of Britain, watched the United States’ economic and military forces awaken, he witnessed the victory of the Allied forces along with the permanent destruction of the United Kingdom’s status as a world power.  He watched the rise of Soviet Russia and played an important role in communications with their leaders.  He saw, as did everyone living in the same generation… the world change irrevocably.    

Of that…I am jealous.