SHALL WE HIRE A MONUMENT ENGRAVER TO GO TO ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY AND ADD THE MISSING WORDS ?
A MESSAGE FROM AN APPALLED OBSERVER:
Today I went to visit the new World War II Memorial in Washington , DC ..... I got an unexpected history lesson. Because I'm a baby boomer, I was one of the youngest in the crowd.. Most were the age of my parents, Veterans of 'the greatest war,' with their families. It was a beautiful day, and people were smiling and happy to be there. Hundreds of us milled around the memorial, reading the inspiring words of Eisenhower and Truman that are engraved there.
On the Pacific side of the memorial, a group of us gathered to read the words President Roosevelt used to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941-- a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked.
One elderly woman read the words aloud:
'With confidence in our armed forces, with the abounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph.'
But as she read, she was suddenly turned angry. 'Wait a minute,' she said, 'they left out the end of the quote. They left out the most important part. Roosevelt ended the message with 'so help us God.'
Her husband said, 'You are probably right. We're not supposed to say things like that now .'
'I know I'm right,' she insisted. 'I remember the speech.' The two looked dismayed,
shook their heads sadly and walked away.
Listening to their conversation, I thought to myself, Well, it has been over 50 years she's probably forgotten.'
But she had not forgotten.. She was right.
I went home and pulled out the book my book club is reading --- 'Flags of Our Fathers' by James Bradley. It's all about the battle at Iwo Jima .
I haven't gotten too far in the book. It's tough to read because it's a graphic description of the WWII battles in the Pacific.
But right there it was on page 58. Roosevelt 's speech to the nation ends in 'so help us God.'
The people who edited out that part of the speech when they engraved it on the memorial could have fooled me. I was born after the war..! But they couldn't fool the people who were there. Roosevelt 's words are engraved on their hearts.
Now I ask: 'WHO GAVE THEM THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE WORDS OF HISTORY?????????'
I agree totally. How can they get away with that?
ReplyDeleteCindy
What a sad situation this is. I for one and am upset that no mention of God can be made at school or a prayer given at school functions or special ceremonies such as graduations and etc. I just don't get it!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I have ever mentioned this before, but I am married to an atheist. He could care less whether God is ever mentioned anywhere because his belief is God is a made up story to try and make people scared to do wrong. Evolution is taught in school. Why can't there be a class for that and a class for those who believe otherwise. It is a festering wound in my life. I find it sad that some people have no faith in god or any higher power of their choice. I am sick of having to worry about offending people. I probably am not a learned enough person to talk about this, but to change the words written in history is unbelievable.
Can you tell I am in a bad mood today?
Iris
One doesn't have to be "learned" to stand up for what they believe in. My mentor always called himself agnostic, except in his case he believed in something but couldn't seem to put a name on it. I think he was more unitarian than anything, as were a large number of the founding fathers.
ReplyDelete