Saturday, June 05, 2004
THESE ARE DAYS
These are days we'll remember ... and look back at history. Just in the past week, we've celebrated Memorial Day to remember our troops past and present who fight on our behalf. It is also the 15th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square student uprising. They re-printed that photo of the man standing in front of the line of tanks yesterday in the LA Times. That picture stands for determination of the human spirit and its ability to fighting the powers that be. Unfortunately, nobody in China has ever seen the photo. In fact, they don't even know about it because it' been kept under wraps by the government. And finally, tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day. When the Allied powers stormed the beaches of Normandy, it arguably marked the greatest strategic offensive attack of all time. It was because of that day alone that made the downfall of Hitler possible. I've seen a recreation in Saving Private Ryan, but I read many firsthand stories in Time magazine recently and it was truly amazing. Imagine being a 20-something soldier riding in those boats toward probable death, with your feet frozen from the cold water rising up to your waist. The doors open, thre are bullets everywhere, and you're still glad to be there. The feeling I get from these WWII vets re-telling their story and the state of their country is drastically different than the one these current troops are giving me now in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These are days we'll remember ... and look back at history. Just in the past week, we've celebrated Memorial Day to remember our troops past and present who fight on our behalf. It is also the 15th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square student uprising. They re-printed that photo of the man standing in front of the line of tanks yesterday in the LA Times. That picture stands for determination of the human spirit and its ability to fighting the powers that be. Unfortunately, nobody in China has ever seen the photo. In fact, they don't even know about it because it' been kept under wraps by the government. And finally, tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day. When the Allied powers stormed the beaches of Normandy, it arguably marked the greatest strategic offensive attack of all time. It was because of that day alone that made the downfall of Hitler possible. I've seen a recreation in Saving Private Ryan, but I read many firsthand stories in Time magazine recently and it was truly amazing. Imagine being a 20-something soldier riding in those boats toward probable death, with your feet frozen from the cold water rising up to your waist. The doors open, thre are bullets everywhere, and you're still glad to be there. The feeling I get from these WWII vets re-telling their story and the state of their country is drastically different than the one these current troops are giving me now in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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