Which Greatest Generation?

I saw a friend's post the other day, a photo with the attached hashtag, "greatest generation." I know the reference. I'm at a loss to disagree. But as I think about it, I have to ask: how contrary to everything else about my youth and experience growing up that I, or any of us, should be so willing to surrender that title? Why should we feel satisfied, nostalgic, and, well, anything but confrontational in assigning that weighty adjective to a passing generation?  Isn't it odd, sad even, that we sign off on this? No comeback, no pushback, no inclination to say, "now just a doggone minute!"

I look at my children and the children of some of my friends and I think perhaps we're doing something extraordinary ourselves. Perhaps we're not physically building a nation, constructing factories, machinery, riveting bombers and ships, building cities, towns and roadways. But perhaps we are making something better. In spite of the crush of entitlement and fiscal dependency, perhaps we are still somehow raising a generation that will accomplish great things beyond our imagination.

Lord knows some days I encounter what seems like an endless parade of unproductive need and greed. And, too, I have to wonder when I encounter 10 year-olds and teens who can't remove the phone from their hand or the buds from their ears-- and the parent doesn't even seem to mind. But, in spite of that, when I see the hashtag "greatest generation" and the reference is to a generation that is all but extinct, I'd like to think them wrong. We should hope-- and expect-- to do better.