Some Thoughts on the Anniversary of D-Day

Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe known as “D-Day.” It was a make or break effort by the allies to push the Nazi’s out of all occupied areas and eventually crush them into submission. The history of the event is well known and can be easily accessed by anyone. I do not wish to talk about that. Rather I want to talk about just what the sacrifice of over 5,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy bought for us then, and how we are using that purchase today.

In simple terms, those lives purchased freedom for our forefathers then and extending to today. That is, our liberty to live free from coercion to do basically what we want to do, is what the lives of those brave young men were given for. Our ability to work and earn our living and keep (a portion of) what we earn is included. Our ability to have a raise a family relatively free from government interference is included. Our ability to go where we want, shop where we please, have the friends we choose, buy the home we are able to, drive the car we can, walk down the street whenever we wish, eat what we want, drink what we want, own what we can purchase or is given to us and on and on is what has been bought with the price of those lives. Let me try to put this in some modern perspective. More men died on those beaches than died in all of the 9/11 attacks combined. If those lives do not deserve to be remembered for the heroics displayed that we benefit from 65 years later, I cannot think of any other human accomplishments that deserve any honor at all.

With that in mind, I searched and searched for any kind of special recognition via television concerning this important remembrance. I wondered just how important this event would be considered by those who run the television industry. I found out, much to my dismay, that out of the hundreds of channels I have access to via cable, not one was having anything special, or showing any movie, or doing anything at all to even acknowledge what D-Day was! Other than the news networks who reported on June 6 as the anniversary of D-Day, nothing else was mentioned or hinted at by anyone. That is a profoundly sad and frightening aspect of our society.