About a year ago, I visited the World War II Museum with my close friends Leon and Jocelyn Connelly. This was my second time at the museum, and thoroughly enjoyed the superb production of Beyond all Boundaries, a brand new 4-D film presented on a 120-foot wide “immersive screen.” Tom Hanks was executive producer of this moving work, which takes viewers right into the action, from Pearl Harbor to the final battle of the war.
Being reminded of the courage and wisdom of the Greatest Generation, I began contemplating the state of our nation today. The current financial crises all over the world demand that we go beyond all boundaries to solve the problems. In his book, The Debt Bomb, Senator Coburn (Thomas Allen “Tom” Coburn, M.D, R-OK) suggested solutions for the United States. And if we take his advice, I think Europe and Japan will follow.
So far in our planet’s history, no government has endured. Even the powerful Roman Empire eventually collapsed. We will, too, without amazing innovation in government. We did amazing things in WWII. We can handle this, if we have the will and the understanding.
I agree with Senator Coburn that the reason we haven’t bounced back from the “Great Recession” is our huge national debt and other obligations, primarily entitlements, and especially Medicare and Medicaid. How we proceed from here will determine our economic well-being, as well as whether we become a second-class power in the world. So, we all must do our best—veterans, elected officials and everyone else—to take this challenge and win, as we did in WWII.
