Today is a special day for me. Today is D-Day. Today marks the 56th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy. I'll spare you the poetry of the patriotism, the legends of individual glory, because it's hard to get poetic about images of young men whose bodies washed ashore, lifeless, never to see home again. The less fortunate sank in the waters under the weight of their own "survival" gear. They never even got to see the dreaded enemy they were fighting, and many never even got shot. They simply drowned. There is nothing glorious about death.
America was not the only invading force on that day, but the records show that we drew the worst beach to land on, Omaha. That, and the fact that I am an American gives me special cause to single out "our boys". I try to imagine being in the first wave. It's a terrible thought, being the first piece of meat thrown to hungry dogs. They faced this prospect not with nerves of steel and grim determination, but with the same terror that you or I would. "Our boys" were no different from us, and they went anyway. Maybe they bought into the propaganda, maybe they just didn't know any better. At any rate, they did something that I doubt many people have the courage to do. They flung themselves headlong into the face of the enemy. Then they died, collapsing to the beach not in Hollywood poses but more like rag dolls dropped by a careless child.
I see these images in my history books, and I hear first-hand accounts from the fading memories of the survivors, case-hardened men of steel who were brought to tears by the scene in "Saving Private Ryan" where the boy with no lower jaw is trying to call for "mama". It's hard to say "It's just a movie" when a 78 year old man is weeping openly, recalling a day when it wasn't "just a movie".
I am grateful to all those who went, to all those who fought and preserved our freedom. Without their victories, great and small, people like us, who dare to voice our opinions and ideas openly, who dare to discuss anything, and who shake our fists and say "this government sucks", would surely have died in prison long before now.
On behalf of the Internet generation and free dissidents everywhere, Thank You.
America was not the only invading force on that day, but the records show that we drew the worst beach to land on, Omaha. That, and the fact that I am an American gives me special cause to single out "our boys". I try to imagine being in the first wave. It's a terrible thought, being the first piece of meat thrown to hungry dogs. They faced this prospect not with nerves of steel and grim determination, but with the same terror that you or I would. "Our boys" were no different from us, and they went anyway. Maybe they bought into the propaganda, maybe they just didn't know any better. At any rate, they did something that I doubt many people have the courage to do. They flung themselves headlong into the face of the enemy. Then they died, collapsing to the beach not in Hollywood poses but more like rag dolls dropped by a careless child.
I see these images in my history books, and I hear first-hand accounts from the fading memories of the survivors, case-hardened men of steel who were brought to tears by the scene in "Saving Private Ryan" where the boy with no lower jaw is trying to call for "mama". It's hard to say "It's just a movie" when a 78 year old man is weeping openly, recalling a day when it wasn't "just a movie".
I am grateful to all those who went, to all those who fought and preserved our freedom. Without their victories, great and small, people like us, who dare to voice our opinions and ideas openly, who dare to discuss anything, and who shake our fists and say "this government sucks", would surely have died in prison long before now.
On behalf of the Internet generation and free dissidents everywhere, Thank You.
