The next generation of Americans might be the greatest

Published April 28, 2017

by Mike Hughes, Jacksonville Daily News, April 23, 2017.

They’re a generation you’re going to hear a lot about in a year or two.

Unlike groups that came before them — Depression Children, Baby Boomers, Generations X and Y and now Millennials whose reign spanned years and sometimes decades in the case of us Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 — the genesis of this newest demographic happened in a matter of hours on Sept. 11, 2001.

For children born on or around this infamous day when America was targeted by Islamic fanatics in a coordinated attack in New York City, Arlington, Va., and Shanksville, Pa., killing more than 3,000 civilians and Armed Service members have become known as “911 Babies” or “911 Children.” There’s even a group named “Tuesday’s Children” for babies born on that fateful day, which happened to be a Tuesday.

Now hold your collective breaths, because the next paragraph may shock a few of you who think like I do that my wedding day seemed like just yesterday and further feel that President George H.W. Bush recently retired from the Oval Office a week or so ago — even though both incidents occurred nearly 25 years ago.

The 911 babies are in high school — as sophomores or juniors — and appear to be a generation unlike any other this country, or perhaps the world, has ever seen.

I had an opportunity to peer into a sampling of their realm and listen to their take on the world around when I was assigned to report on an informal town meeting between 10 local high school students who are part of the membership that forms the Jacksonville Youth Council and their invited guest, Congressman Walter B. Jones Jr., R-NC.

The youngsters were eager to meet an elected official, an encounter a very few had ever experienced.

The students were curious, poised, unafraid and polite in the presence of the 74-year-old, 11-term congressmen. They came loaded with 24 questions, addressing social, economic, and political issues pertinent to the matters of the day. Many people in Jones’ shoes could have easily feigned his schedule was tight and bounce after fielding a couple of questions. After all, this is a politician who like the other 534 House and Senate members have to deal with a probing press, fellow members from across the aisle and constituent requests on a daily basis. What could a sitting congressman gain by answering 24 questions from a group of high school kids in Jacksonville, N.C.?

A great deal, as everyone in the town hall admitted at the conclusion of the event, even the Congressman.

Jones got in front of the kids, and after a 13-minute introduction about what he does on the job threw it back to the kids who responding by taking turns asking questions. An hour later after the last question was asked — Do you think the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18? — both Jones and the 10 students agreed the time they spent together was well worthwhile; and each person gained a better understanding of the world in which they live. For Jones, he got a glimpse of the up-and-coming generation that will soon carry the torch of freedom for all Americans, and the teens learned about some of the things their elected officials in the Nation’s Capital do on a day-to-day basis.

Think about the world into which these children were born and the state of affairs they’ll all face in a year or two when they become adults. This is a generation that has always known its country as one in a constant state of war somewhere in the world. That message for many has been extremely personal hitting close to home — especially in eastern North Carolina in general and Onslow County specifically — with a high propensity of military families living in our community.

This group of young Americans will inherit a world that has shrunk in size — not in the figurative sense — but in a literal way because of advances in technology that today can connect a child living in Brisbane, Australia, with another kid living in Beulaville as easily as bringing together two adolescences living on opposite sides of Richlands.

Perhaps this generation of young Americans will be known as the group of individuals born in a very narrow period at a time when terrorists’ indiscriminate slaughter reigned supreme killing innocents and the helpless. Some of them are astute to know firsthand the cost to nations — such as the United States and Great Britain — to wage war and spend more than a trillion dollars of its citizens’ money and, worse yet, sacrifice the lives of thousands of its countrymen on the battlefield. They’ve grown up seeing the heavy cost — both financially and emotionally — of what their country spends for caring for the tens of thousands wounded during the past 16 years.

Maybe this group of Americans whose lineage includes DNA from their grandparents from the Greatest Generation to their Baby Boomer parents will be the generation that eradicates war from this planet.

Let’s face it, while previous American generations have continued to advance this country forward with many affording their children with a better life than what they had, one thing is certain: Each as these groups have had to live with the drumbeat of war as a constant soundtrack to their lives.

Let’s pray our 911 babies begin their adult lives in a different world than the one in which they entered. Let’s hope they find a way to live in peace, because God knows they’ve seen enough of war.