SUPER BOWL - MORE THAN A GAME

America is in danger of losing something great. Its "greatest generation." Not to death, but to disbelief.....!

When history and Tom Brokaw called the generation of the 30s and 40s "the greatest," I was there watching them. Parents, family, neighbors. They struggled through the Great Depression and World War II with a tough brand of resilience that authentically earned the accolades.

But lately the accolades -- like most accolades -- are being questioned. Worse still, being dismissed as inaccurately sentimental. Today's younger more skeptical generations, accustomed to higher social standards, often look back and see all the racism, sexism and prejudice of those days. "How is that great?" they ask.

The answer from those who were there sounds self-serving. Perhaps gilding the past with stardust. Memories do play tricks. But that may miss the point. The term "greatest generation" is not meant to paint an imperfect population as perfect. It's meant to look back to a population that was surely imperfect, but which was also much younger. More innocent. Better connected. More willing to believe in something so corny as larger than itself.

Despite all the poverty and causalities of those years, there may have also been a greater respect for the ideal. Divorce rates, abortions, drug use, homicides and gun violence were all at dramatically lower levels in most cities of the nation. Something else. Family, schooling and praying were generally taken more seriously. Flags, parades, the Oath of Allegiance, and good-guys-finish-first movies were too. Oh, and just about anybody could sleep safely out in the park at night when the summers got too hot

Now -- of all things -- the annual Super Bowl may help make the point.

During the 30s and 40s there seemed to be a more Norman Rockwell sense of community and camaraderie among families, neighbors, congregations, entire communities. So now when 21st C Americans gather for the Super Bowl -- at the game and in millions of homes -- this all-together-at-one-time-feeling is fairly rare for today's more diverse generations. But back then, it was far more common as we experienced -- live and together -- our presidents rally us, our radio comedians tickle us, our reporters inform us, and our heroes inspire us us.

Just as a lot of Americans today feel connected on Super Bowl Sunday, even more Americans then felt connected throughout the year. Let the record show, becoming more profoundly connected is what can help make a society once again "the greatest"....