Some Thoughts on the Anniversary of D-Day

It is sad because when we ignore the memory of such sacrifices, and those so recently as less than a lifetime ago, we are testifying that we really don’t care about freedom. We don’t understand just how valuable it is to live as we do in this nation. We don’t realize how rare, globally and historically, our freedom is. We can’t grasp the precious nature of the liberty we have been blessed with. There are untold billions around this earth that recognize the worth of freedom far better than we do, and that is why so many flock to our shores at great risk to themselves and their families. We should mourn the fact that we are such ungrateful and ignorant creatures, when so many others live in abject tyranny around the globe.

It is frightening because our collective memory seems to be growing shorter and shorter as we are overwhelmed with the events of the day. One could describe what is happening as being stricken with a kind of societal ADD. It is not simply our sense of history that is affected in a negative manner. It is also the consequences we face when we become forgetful of the lessons of the past. Those consequences place us at considerable risk to repeat the same mistakes, and end up having to pay the same or even a greater price to retain or regain freedom. That is, if we don’t go so far as to make even regaining freedom seem like a pipe dream. Let me give just one example of what could be in store as a result of ignoring history.

More than one astute commentator has pointed out how similar our current national situation, especially economically, is to that of Germany in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Germany’s economy was extremely stressed due to a war and the Great Depression. We are under severe economic distress due to a deep recession and trying to finance two wars. In Germany, a very charismatic leader came along with some rather extreme proposals to try and pull them out of their economic mess. We have just elected a charismatic leader who is proposing some very far-reaching measures of government control, even over private sector entities such as banks, car companies, and the health insurance industry. Let me make this absolutely clear. I am NOT SAYING that our president could be compared to Hitler in any sense other than that he is charismatic. What I am saying is that certain government policies which are advocated strongly by this administration taken to their logical conclusion could set us up for a far less free society than we have ever had. It won’t be national socialism with it’s racism and antisemitism, but it could end up being socialism with utilitarian ethics such as, mandatory standards of health, education, transportation, population and who knows what else. Unless we remain aware of history and thus vigilant not to repeat the mistakes of history, our future is far less hopeful than we think.