But through world wars and a Great Depression, through painful social upheaval and a Cold War, and now through the attacks of September 11, 2001, our Nation has indeed survived.

Oh, sure, we have another world war coming, and another great depression, but where are the leaders this time?

World War II ended the Great Depression with one of the great public-private industrial collaborations in the history of man.

Our Generation has had no Great war, no Great Depression. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.

We are a resilient country. We've been through a Civil War; we've been through two World Wars. We've been through a Great Depression; we even made it through Jimmy Carter! We will make it through the Obama years!

I am, as it happens, a baby boomer, but not one who feels any broad-gauge nostalgia for the '60s and '70s. My attitude resembles that of my parents, who were born in the '20s and lived through the Great Depression and World War II.