Who remembers World War II? As a kid, did you go to the movies and see newsreels of our troops fighting in Africa, Europe or the Pacific? Even those who aren’t old enough to remember it first hand have probably seen newsreels from the era. There was stock footage of our Troops in action, tanks rolling across the desert and a lot of footage of troops marching down the road.
I am too young to have seen this first hand myself, but I have seen newsreels and a lot of documentaries about World War II. I remember my father telling me stories of the things they had to do without during the war as they worked to produce food on the farm for the troops. I have listened to my mother tell of Church socials, dances and activities for the troops who were home on leave or stationed in the area.
They had days when they did not eat wheat, days without meat. Staples like sugar and eggs were rationed. It seems the entire country was at war. We had a common enemy, an enemy who dared to strike our homeland without provocation or warning. We were determined to win this war, and nothing, no amount of privation or heartache would prevent us from being victorious in this common venture.
Everyone knew someone who was in the service, every family had lost someone or knew someone close who had. Parents and families who had children in the service proudly let others know by placing a service star in their window, one star for every family member in the service of their country. If they lost a family member in the service, the blue star was covered by a gold star.
People were proud of their family members’ service, they were proud even when that service caused them to pay the ultimate price. Certainly they were not happy about it, no one is ever happy to lose someone they love, but they were still proud of them and believed they died for a cause that was worth the price paid.
Where did the pride go? When did we stop being proud of the service our young people were providing by placing themselves between us and a very real enemy? Newspapers used to print lists of the men who were wounded, killed or were missing in action every day. These lists somehow did not cause people to pull out a slide rule to see if we were paying too much for our freedom. They managed instead to strengthen our resolve, to make us even more determined to win the war.
I listen to the news today and I become heartsick, all the talk on the radio news or television news is bad. Not bad in a good way, but bad in a bad way. We aren’t getting the information of how we lost x number of men in action. We hear that the insurgents managed to blow up one of our vehicles killing x number of soldiers. There is no excuse for this.
Have we completely forgotten that we are in a war with a very real enemy? An enemy who has vowed to destroy us? An enemy who attacked us without provocation or warning? An enemy who kills civilians in preference to combatants?
These are the same people who flew commercial airplanes into skyscrapers in New York City. I don’t know where all of our military installations are, but I am pretty sure that we did not have an outpost in the World Trade Center. These were all civilians for pete’s sake! Our enemies are barbarians! They will stop at nothing to destroy our way of life, yet we want to constantly snipe at our military and keep telling everyone how well the enemy is doing their job.
Our media is giving aid and comfort to our enemy and we say nothing. We have people in Congress who have declared the war lost, and we don’t scream for their impeachment on the grounds of high treason!
Friends, our Constitution gives us great power, but as it was said in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. We need to show that we understand and accept our responsibility by supporting our troops. Something to keep in mind is that it is impossible to support our troops by declaring the war lost. We must stop giving comfort to our enemy with our media. We need to proudly hang a star in our window to help others remember that there are sacrifices to be made, even if it isn’t Wheatless Thursdays.
Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader has made a fool of himself, again. This week he is attempting to get the DREAM act through the Senate, the American People have said NO to this idea of amnesty every time it has come up, yet Harry seems to have too much hair in his ears and can’t hear.
