The Greatest Generation

Tom Brokaw
One of the latest perks that Yahoo is offering employees is a speakers series, dubbed the Influencers Series, which features soem of the movers and shakers of this world. They kicked off that series on Tuesday by having former NBC Nightly News anchorman Tom Brokaw speak on campus. Brokaw spent an hour up close with me and my fellow Yahoos, wooing the audience with his trademark baritone voice.

He touched on a wide variety of topics, starting with a few words of concern for his ABC counterpart Peter Jennings, who revealed on Tuesday that he has lung cancer. Brokaw also spoke about the internet and how it was a “phenomenon that he would have never imagined in his lifetime.” He spent the better part of the hour covering world events and how we as Americans are in the uneasy situation of having things that much of the world envies, not all of those things being material possessions, but the liberties that we take for granted.

I was surprised to hear him take responsibility on behalf of a large number of American journalists for the political leanings in America that tend to favor one ideology. It was refreshing to actually hear someone stand up and take accountability, which was one of the key points to his speech.

The most interesting part of his speech focused on America’s current quandary in the Middle East. He had some ideas on how America could address Muslims from less of a dictatorial position and more from a peer level. I don’t agree with all of solution that he threw out, because the situation in the Middle East is not one that can be solved over a cup of coco and some hugs. The Middle East is a complex problem in need of complex solutions. Out issue is that nobody in government today has the brains to figure out what that solution is.

Brokaw wrapped up his talk with the one thing that he may be best known for over the last two or three years, and that’s his take on the Greatest Generation, or the generation of Americans who lived through World War II. I’ve read portions of his book, and wholeheartedly agree that the intestinal fortitude of Americans is one of the most interesting chapters in the United States’ history. Brokaw’s message was not about great battles or specific events that occurred during the war, but rather of the spirit of Americans during this moment in time.

His message focused on the attitude that Americans lived during the depression period that led up to the war and the sense of community that brought this nation together when the fighting started. His message to us as members of this society today was to make an effort to share the resources that we have at our disposal (not necessarily monetary), in order to build our communities. If we don’t take the necessary steps to evolve our society, then we will have failed those that placed us in the situation of being the envy of the world that we are today.

His message was something any patriot could understand, regardless of their leanings. I for one, am thankful I had the opportunity to hear it from an American revered by so many.


Brokaw signs his book after his speech
*My photos were taken with my mobile phone, hench the quality.