Penn State, my final loss of faith – Guest Voices – The Washington Post

Has Tom Brokaw’s “greatest generation” failed its leadership responsibilities? This man thinks so. He’s a veteran of Iraq and went through  Sandusky’s Second Mile Foundation, successfully and happily. But too many of his elders have failed to lead.

One thing I know for certain: A leader must emerge from Happy Valley to tie our community together again, and it won’t come from our parents’ generation.

They have failed us, over and over and over again.

I speak not specifically of our parents — I have two loving ones — but of the public leaders our parents’ generation has produced. With the demise of my own community’s two most revered leaders, Sandusky and Joe Paterno, I have decided to continue to respect my elders, but to politely tell them, “Out of my way.”

They have had their time to lead. Time’s up. I’m tired of waiting for them to live up to obligations.

Think of the world our parents’ generation inherited. They inherited a country of boundless economic prosperity and the highest admiration overseas, produced by the hands of their mothers and fathers. They were safe. For most, they were endowed opportunities to succeed, to prosper, and build on their parents’ work.

For those of us in our 20s and early 30s, this is not the world we are inheriting.

via Penn State, my final loss of faith – Guest Voices – The Washington Post.