D-Day plus 81
Today is June 6. The Anniversary of D-Day and it’s odd to think that today, in the 21st century, 81 years later, it’s probably better remembered as a scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan than it is as a real scene from the lives of mothers and fathers who actually lived through it or fought and died in it. Of course, that feels pretty normal since the same thing happened with the Civil War and Gone with the Wind. Memories fade, wounds heal, and movies need scripts.
And it’s also odd to think that June 6, 1944 was exactly 80 years from the end of the Civil War and there were still men alive then who fought in that conflict just as there are men still alive today who fought in World War II. And I wonder if there will ever be a time when we stop marking history by the wars we fought in. Probably not. Because the fellows who fight in those wars and vow never to have another die off to be replaced by fellows who only know war through books and movies, like to dress up and play soldier, and start thinking wars are heroic endeavors.
I guess we’re just victims of a vicious cycle but that might be a form of surrender to those who worship warriors and I truly relish peace and I don’t want those fellows to have the upper hand. Although, in my 78 years we’ve fought in Korea, Vietnam, Granada, Panama, Afghanistan, and Iraq. So, it seems peace is a pretty tenuous thing in the world at large and I might be whistling into the wind. But maybe if enough of us whistle, someone somewhere will hear the tune, and decide to really give peace a chance. And we can say one day, this was the day the last soldier died.