Last week I finished two weeks of editorials, where I discussed the Nazi holocaust and the fact that most American millennials are uneducated on the slaughter of innocent Jewish lives a mere 3 generations ago. http://www.edgefieldadvertiser.com/2018/04/more-on-the-holocaust-another-action-item/.  Both weeks had action items for us as individuals: parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts or uncles, to help ensure the heirs of our great republic receive the education we owe them, whether they are properly receiving it from where they receive their formal education, or not.

In October of last-year I wrote about two summer programs for the next generation which will help in their education and aid them in defending the worldview which, in my humble opinion, has led to the greatest, most prosperous republic in the history of the world.  I share those editorials with you again for reference, as they are opportunities for you to invest in the next generation this summer: http://www.edgefieldadvertiser.com/2017/10/mentoring-across-generational-lines/ and http://www.edgefieldadvertiser.com/2017/10/echo-chambers/.

This week I want to emphatically state, I believe the next generation offers much hope to those of us who are middle aged or older.  Quite frankly, I think millennials and generation Z, those currently coming of age, collectively get a bum rap.  Every generation has short comings, and there is always the question of whether a generation will be up to the challenges ahead of them.

I would submit that one of the reasons our grandparents generation became “The Greatest Generation” was because they suffered.  It was through their collective suffering and overcoming the enormous pressures of The Great Depression, World War Two and beginning the process of leading us through the Civil Rights Era, combined with that generations’ phenomenal work ethic and the “no bailout” worldview of free market principles in a capitalistic society, that the generation coming of age today, three generations removed from that “Greatest Generation,” has had the privilege to grow up in the nation-state with the largest middle class in history.

As a whole, the American generation coming of age today has not suffered or known want like our grandparents’ generation did.  Today, the poorest among us are among the wealthiest populations on the globe.  The fault of any shortcomings the next American generation has, needs to be placed correctly, on our generation(s).

In addition to their educational deficiencies, they will be inheriting a pyramid scheme of debt.  These two obstacles alone provide national security risks that we have not faced since the end of World War II.  As we think about our individual responsibility to prepare leadership for the next generation, which will or will not overcome the challenges we bequeath to them, I would encourage you to look at and invest in the two organizations I mentioned last October: Summit Ministries https://www.summit.org/ and Student Leadership University http://www.slulead.com/.  Don’t simply send those organizations financial resources – send them your students, your heirs, for the education and the grounding they deserve – if they are up to it!

Here’s wishing you a productive week!