Saturday, June 6, 2009
D-Day
posted at 10:03 AM |
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It's been sixty-five years since the extraordinary events of June 6, 1944 and many are honoring and celebrating that day. The pictures are so simple and so plain and so moving. The world leaders are dignified and calm, and moving. It is good to see and think and remember a moment when, as Obama quoted Lyndon Johnson as pointing out, a moment when history and circumstance converge to require something of us and we rise to meet it.
(By the way, kudos to C-Span and Fox for broadcasting the entire commemoration with no interruptions. CNN covered it but cut away for commercials the couple of times I checked. The major networks didn't cover it at all. Sad for them, good for C-Span and Fox - and us.)
It surprises me how emotionally powerful it is to see men receive the French Légion d'honneur and realize that they were there, really there, and have lived sixty-five years longer making them all over eighty. One of them is even wearing his uniform from then! And silly as it sounds to say this, they don't look any different from other people, you know?
Why isn't there a Russian head of state there? They were one of the Allies - or didn't they participate?
What are all the medals on Prince Charles's chest - did he fight in combat??
I didn't realize that Bob Dole had been part of the Normandy invasion. (Bad me.)
The slow rendition of taps was amazing. The speeches were wonderful. The fly-over was an extraordinarily moving moment. When that fourth plane pulled away, it was almost heart-breaking.
(By the way, kudos to C-Span and Fox for broadcasting the entire commemoration with no interruptions. CNN covered it but cut away for commercials the couple of times I checked. The major networks didn't cover it at all. Sad for them, good for C-Span and Fox - and us.)
It surprises me how emotionally powerful it is to see men receive the French Légion d'honneur and realize that they were there, really there, and have lived sixty-five years longer making them all over eighty. One of them is even wearing his uniform from then! And silly as it sounds to say this, they don't look any different from other people, you know?
Why isn't there a Russian head of state there? They were one of the Allies - or didn't they participate?
What are all the medals on Prince Charles's chest - did he fight in combat??
I didn't realize that Bob Dole had been part of the Normandy invasion. (Bad me.)
The slow rendition of taps was amazing. The speeches were wonderful. The fly-over was an extraordinarily moving moment. When that fourth plane pulled away, it was almost heart-breaking.
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