This will make you angry

[criggleman]

This will make you angry



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 t he 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 unbending 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?????????"

[GySgtRet]

I have been to that memorial and never gave it a second thought. I am a docent at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. In Leatherneck Gallery there is SgtMaj Dan Daly's "Come on you sons of bithches do you want to live forever" quote. Avisitor to the museum was appaled at this quote the docent at that moment that overheard this mother complaining about it and the docent said ma'am we can't change history or the things that happened. She did have small children and then she went on to rant about the displays with blood in them one that sticks out is the Corpsman patching up a wounded Marine. I agree with you 100% we should not change the truth in history we should preserve it. This worl of C really ****** me off at times.

[crate78]

There are now people trying to say the Holocaust didn't happen. The PC revisionists haven't forgotten about the two atomic bombs on Japan, though.

What gripes me is, if America is something like 90% Christian, why are we always pandering to the lunatic fringe?

The scary part is, those people are out there procreating.

crate

[DWG]

Where I went to college, in the early 80s, there was a large contingent of young Japanese girls from a sister school in Tokyo. The would come over to improve their English, allegedly. However, every Aug. 6th there would ALWAYS be an editorial about whether the bomb should have been dropped.I had an old chemistry prof. who I knew was of "the generation" so I asked him once what he thought of using the bomb. His reply was "tickled the crap out of me, I was a private in the army on a troopship in the Pacific at the time." People who want to warp history to their own modern perceptions are idiots. From pulling Mark Twains' books because of their use of the "N" word to twisting the words of past historical figures by comparing them to the pc standards of today and denying the Judeo-Christian framework of our Countrys' founding; it is all just an attempt to put our great history in a bad light. It sometimes seems we have gone from "America, right or wrong" to Amerika, Always Wrong". The way people spoke, acted and thought in the past is part of history and should be reported factually and in context. Every time I see some "historical drama" that is modernized to fit pc standards I greet it with a resounding "B***S***" and turn the channel or find something more productive to do.I recall there was a controversy regarding the Enola Gay in the Smithsonian-thankfully the rational thinkers prevailed and she is on display at the Air and Space Museum. I highly recommend the Museum, I have been there and it is filled with great displays of our military might including the Enola Gay (plus a LOT of highly excited old guys with their equally bored wives) History is history, not an opinion!

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Typical twaddle from what I call "tour-ons", in re the National Museum of the Marine Corps. I really want to get down there this spring and take the tour. I'm a docent at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine (and a Civil War Surgeon as well) so I'm well aware of the touristy/boomer thoughts on history revisionism. Our exhibits are not 'horror movie gory', but they are not pleasant, either, showing original period photos of the dead, and piles of amputated limbs. Little kids are great, they love the stuff. PC types are usually 'outraged' that we would 'show that'.

Don't get me started on the dumb questions tourists ask....Unless GySgtRet starts it first

[10thzodiac]

If anybody ever questions the use of the Atomic bomb on Japan, ask him or her if Japan had it, would they of used it on us.

You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html

[DWG]

Very cool link 10Z. Guess the krauts and japs should praise God for the Marshall Plan. That was an excellent story, though! See, that link thing works!

[10thzodiac]

Very cool link 10Z. Guess the krauts and japs should praise God for the Marshall Plan. That was an excellent story, though! See, that link thing works!

We should too, Secretary of State Marshall was determined not to repeat the mistakes of World War I that led to WW II.

[DWG]

We should too, Secretary of State Marshall was determined not to repeat the mistakes of World War I that led to WW II.

Well, at least we ain't fighting those two again(yet)! I would have thought that was a War Between the States story! Still, great lesson in be careful what you ask for!!

[greensideout]

Well, at least we ain't fighting those two again(yet)! I would have thought that was a War Between the States story! Still, great lesson in be careful what you ask for!!

Also be careful who you vote for. The leaders of Germany and Japan brought destruction upon their own people because they tried to reshape the world and it's people to fit into their empire and culture.

[10thzodiac]

Well, at least we ain't fighting those two again(yet)! I would have thought that was a War Between the States story! Still, great lesson in be careful what you ask for!!

Yes, no more War Between the States, that was 3,000 soldiers a month for four years. Unbelievably, Iraq pales in comparison.

[DWG]

Yes, no more War Between the States, that was 3,000 soldiers a month for four years. Unbelievably, Iraq pales in comparison.

In the WBTS we lost 23,000 in ONE day (9/17/62), most before 9:00 AM in a bloody cornfield. When you fight to win you have to be prepared to suffer! I had a great uncle there in the 6th Georgia.

[10thzodiac]

In the WBTS we lost 23,000 in ONE day (9/17/62), most before 9:00 AM in a bloody cornfield. When you fight to win you have to be prepared to suffer! I had a great uncle there in the 6th Georgia.

Can we call you Donny Reb ?

[DWG]

Can we call you Donny Reb ?

I'd rather you didn't. Unreconstructed S.O.B. would be preferred!

Our government never surrendered; just the armies. We're merely on hiatus. Save that Confederate money!!!

[Sgt Leprechaun]

"I won't be re-construc-ted, and I do not care a damn!!!"

Love that song.

Mine fought with 1st Maryland Cavalry. (CS). Not the foreign immigrant dutchmen conscriped right off the docks...

God, don't get us Rebs started....