Marathon Pundit: Veterans Day 11/11/11: World War II Memorial

Saturday, November 05, 2011

Veterans Day 11/11/11: World War II Memorial

Marathon Pundit at the memorial

When I was in Washington in February, I visited the spacious National World War II Memorial. Over 400,000 Americans gave their lives in the noble effort.

Pictured above is the Atlantic column. Of course for the United States, the Second World War was a two-front conflict, which means of course there is a Pacific column.

On the Pacific side of the memorial, two parts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech to Congress on the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks is are carved into the granite:

December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy...No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

Later in that speech, FDR declared, "So help us God."

But as Fox News reports, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, Robert Abbey, is opposed to adding Roosevelt's D-Day prayer to the memorial, he believes (maybe I should use a different verb) that the prayer would "dilute" the message of the memorial.

Well...

That prayer is obviously historically relevant, besides, praying for victory and the safety of our troops was the first reaction of many Americans on June 6, 1944. For instance, my mother first learned of our invasion of Europe when she arrived at her Catholic grade school that morning. "Everyone into the church," the nuns cried out.