Comment to be added, or just add me, but commenting gets my attention faster.

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Open My Eyes, Change My Mind
Okay, in response to a post somewhere, I'm keeping this open. I've got it set to screen no comments, so you can even post anonymously. That way I don't have to even know who you are if you don't want me to.

Choose a topic, try to convince me I'm wrong. Feel free, it's been done before. Want to rant at me, feel free, I won't delete. Want me to self analyze myself and post what I percieve as character flaws, okay.

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MLK Day Reflections (A rare public post)
It's interesting to reflect how things have changed as a society since the days of Martin Luther King Jr., who would have been 81 today had he lived. Let's look at a few:
1) My generation has never known formal segregation outside of a history textbook.
2) I'm watching a Japanese game show right now, in which there are a few Americans. Muscular white men rooting fervently for their Asian counterparts.
3) Interracial marriage, at least in my area, is not a stigma.
4) There is no Soviet Union, in fact, when the shuttle program was suspended after the last disaster, we sent astronauts up on Russian spacecraft.
5) Most of the major sports teams are filled with African Americans.
6) The world's best golfer is African American.
7) The President is half black.
8) Americans are setting near record giving amounts for an all black nation that has been left in ruins by an earthquake.
9) Americans are no longer raised in a society that believes itself to be invincible.
10) We have a federal holiday named after an African American Civil Rights Activist.

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D-Day (A day late)
"Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force,

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck, and let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."

- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

On this day, sixty-five years ago, forces dedicated to a free world launched an invasion that would change history. Forces of United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States of America launched an invasion of Nazi-occupied France, allowing the hard labors and sufferings of the French Resistance to bear the fruits of freedom.

Following the assault phase, these first attackers would be joined by other resistance groups from across Europe, signifigantly the armies of the Free French and the Free Polish. While contentiously the battle for Europe could have been won by the Soviet Union alone, the invasion by the Allied powers brought about an end to the war on the continent faster, and secured the liberty of Western Europe in the years following the war.

To those who still live, that participated in this invasion...thank you. To those who have already passed on, you are in our memories, and we are thankful to you as well.

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News Roundup
Photographer races against time to take photos of world's last ten surviving World War One veterans. That's from seshen.

New 4,300 year old pyramid discovered in Egypt.

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Seven years in
In years past, I have recounted on this journal what I was doing on that fateful day, the Pearl Harbor of my generation. I'm not going to, not this time.

You see, I am twenty-two years old, and one-third of my life ago, an event occurred that shook the entire world. An event which continues to reverberate unto this day, with remembrances even on the floor of Wall Street; to watch the greatest collection of loud mouths in the world standing in utter silence. To listen to never ending litanies of names elsewhere in New York City. To watch a memorial finished after seven years at the Pentagon. To still see in my mind's eye, not burning buildings, not airplanes, but those whose final jump was caught in a single still frame of photography.

Seven years ago, an event caused unprecedented unity amongst the people of not only the United States of America, but also amongst the world. Ninety-eight separate countries lost its citizens on that day. Seven years later, we have all but forgotten as the nation is at its most divided since the dark days of the mass riots of the 60s and 70s; since the strings of assassinations.

The day Congress returned to work a junior congressman broke into God Bless America, and the rest joined in. Now, if one were to do that, someone would accuse him of being "Too red state". It would case yet another divisive firestorm. We have fallen so far from the unity we enjoyed in our shell shock, we have become petty bickering children.

It's funny the things we remember; I can remember the days after 9/11 with clarity, all the aspects of them. I can remember the day itself with clarity. I can remember walking into school the next day, and the silence that so pervaded it, and would continue to until people walked in with the news that Kabul had fallen.

Despite my chastisement of bickering engulfing the nation as rival groups try to paint each other as Servants of Satan, now is not the time to dwell on our differences. It is a time to remember those who died, those who escaped, those who still have the post traumatic stress of that day. It is the time to remember we are greater together than apart, that democracy continues to live as long as we do not forsake the very freedoms that were part of what made us a target.

While I realize some of my readers may disapprove of it, just a small prayer:

Lord, grant us the strength to persevere as a nation, and grant unto those who died Your mercy. They were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/206303.html Liz Marcs has an old entry that is quite apt, about 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. A story of a newspaper journalist, his interview of a woman who was a 13 year old girl at Pearl Harbor. Then the realization of how that girl felt by the reporter on that day when his world radically changed.

P.S. This is going to be a very rare public entry.

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Random Alcohol Check
Yep just had a lovely random alcohol check. So being a good person, I not only allowed the RAs into my room (all I'm required to do) but I opened every drawer, the dresser, the fridge, and let them peek around under the bed for contraband. Yeah, I was getting ready for bed too. Anyhow, awake now...so I'll take out the trash and then head to bed.

Current Mood: annoyed yet amused

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