[Bookwoman] K2O Completely I HAVE read one!

[Hcaston at aol.com]

Oh wait: I HAVE read one "good" book recently:  phew!  NOT by a woman, 
however...
This was Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, sent me  by a similarly 
oriented bookloving and cherishing friend when she was bookshelf  cleaning and simpy 
could not bear to toss it into the junk heap.   She  asked if anyone in our 
small dogfriends group wanted it  ;-))
It impressed the living daylights out of me, frankly,  to the point where I 
think it should be required reading for all high school  students.  I look at 
my granddaughter (17) and see her appalling lack of  NATIONAL/patriotic values, 
I talk with teacher friends who point out that their  students don't WANT to 
learn, and I cheered Oprah when she said out loud that  the SA girls got her 
school because THEY wanted to learn vs the American kids  who are more 
interested in the newest cell phone  gadgets.
Brokaw's book isn't heavy reading at all, it's small  and short (2-3 pages) 
easily readable  chapters, and what I got from  it is a delicious sense of what 
made our country so incredibly marvelous, still  such a beacon of hope and 
promise.  Perhaps my age is showing--I'll be 71  on Saturday--but I really long 
for the concept of "Ask not what your country can  do for you but rather ask 
what you can do for your  country."
Brokaw brings that back he SHOWS it. Back in my  Mother's Day, there were 
things like Citizenship Classes, and in mine, we had  Social Studies, but I'm not 
seeing anything even remotely resembling those ideas  in schools now.  I'm 
sorry to say that I don't see much evidence of HOME  discussion either...
 
If you've got a kid or a grandkid, it might be useful  to sit down and 
read/discuss this book....
 
love
Helena
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Aim above  morality. 
Be not simply good,
Be good for something.

-- Henry  David  Thoreau

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