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Last night I was pondering that “13th Warrior” clip you posted, wretchard — “Lo, do I hear my father…”
I realized that, for me, its power comes not from the deeds of my ancestors — my relationship with my parents is respectful, but I do not admire them — but from moments of great courage imbedded in my broader American heritage, moments such as D-Day.
And then I realized — in a newer, more profound way — the incredible power of revisionist history in undermining culture. Because I think many people are like me — they are not fortunate enough to be roused at the thought of their father and mother calling to them from “Valhalla,” but they will draw strength from wellsprings of goodness and sacrifice in their country’s history. They will get goosebumps when they hear “The Star Spangled Banner.”
And once you’ve poisoned those springs, and posited that a country is not really so exceptional, you’ve made it harder for its culture to survive.
Watching the video accompanying this post, I could see a day when young people dispassionately watch all those graveyard crosses and see WWII as just another power struggle between colonial Christian rivals — if the Obamas of the world get their “on the other hand” way.
It is incumbent upon each generation to carry forward the fight for freedom. If they do not, then freedom recedes. If several generations do not, freedom can be lost entirely.
There is no “Holiday from History.”
The Baby Boomers and Gen X may have thought that the Greatest Generation did all that needed to be done.
They were wrong.
Now, the struggle to regain that ground will be even more arduous. We will pay twice for the same real estate.
Politicians can serve a useful purpose. Not as Priests interposing between us and the truth but as communicators. That is to say less as Priests than as Pastors or Rabbis. They become not administrative servants advancing their own careers but vessels of our values. When they do it right it is in no way about them and it is clear that they represent us and express the sentiments in our hearts. The Queen of England can do that brilliantly and she should have been there. She has nothing to prove and conveys the presence of her people. Reagan when acting as Head of State, rather than Head of Government, also served in that role. He was also gifted with the ability to articulate what we knew to be true but could not express as well as he did.
Thanks for posting that, Wretchard. I have an uncle buried there, and another in the American cemetery in Manila.
“And then I realized — in a newer, more profound way — the incredible power of revisionist history in undermining culture …
And once you’ve poisoned those springs, and posited that a country is not really so exceptional, you’ve made it harder for its culture to survive.”
Agreed – and that is why it is imperative that we remember, that we reclaim our history, that we see our fore-bearers as being brave, decent, worthy people, and our nation as the exceptional, as a brave experiment in government by the people, for the people. I began to sense something of this urgency about four years ago, when I began to scribble the first chapters of a historical novel about a pioneering wagon-train party. I realized that we had to reclaim our history, we had to have a better idea of what our ancestors came here and fought for … so I started to tell ripping good yarns about the 19th century frontier as a way of educating readers, in some small way, about our history. I’m not nearly as well-known (yet!) as Michael Crichton, and my stories aren’t overtly political – they’re just about ordinary people, but I am carrying on the fight, in my way.
Celia Hayes
“To Truckee’s Trail” & “The Adelsverein Trilogy”
Wonderful clip. Thanks for posting it.
In addition to honoring those who died, the clip also illustrates the power of art.
I know, intellectually, that thousands died on Omaha Beach; but when the orchestra joins the lone bagpipe at the 1:00 mark of the video, my eyes welled up with tears, and the depth of our soldiers’ sacrifice became more salient to me. I can’t explain why, but it touched me.
That experience motivated me to pull up the text of Amazing Grace. It’s worth copying again here (h/t Wikisource):
Music and poetry somehow connect us to God, and our eternal destiny. They can inspire us to do great and amazing deeds, while reminding us that it is due to the grace of God and sacrifice of others that we owe thanks for the opportunity.
L3
“ Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate… we can not consecrate… we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government : of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Gettysburg Address- Abraham Lincoln.
What would he have spoken in the cemeteries of Normandy?
To paraphrase a line from Saving Private Ryan one might see a ghost from the past saying to all of us every day “Earn this.” It is not an entitlement nor is it a right. It is a precious gift that is never given lightly.
I find it needed to add after watching The Obama World Appeasement Tour that the taste of a blood is ferric and forever exposes a fool once its meaning is gathered all in.
Two yr ago I walked the Beaches. I was so overcome by it all. I just do not see how any survived, let along succeded. Stand at waters edge (and this was not a low tide as was the invasion) and looking back and up the ridge was awesome. A great achievment.
One other verse that is often sung, L3, even though it apparently wasn’t part of the original hymn:
“When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.”
(A bit of bad grammar at the end for the sake of rhyme.)
L3
I fear we hear Amazing Grace too much. But reading the words does it for me. Thanks.
I think the funeral oration of Pericles is the best defense of democratic society I have read. I rarely see it referred to, here is a link:
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/PERICLES.HTM
Thanks for posting that. It brought tears. My cousin, Charles Frank Wilder, was at Normandy.
He’s still there.
Thanks Wretchard.
This reminds me of comments made at a Marine’s funeral in Connecticut not too long ago. Something like: “Do not squander the time that God has given you; or, the freedom preserved for you by this Marine’s life.”
God bless them all.
I fear we hear Amazing Grace too much. But reading the words does it for me. Thanks.
No doubt it is the inevitable contempt of familiarity. Losing this reaction to extreme familiarity takes advanced age, I find.
One thing that strikes me about Amazing Grace as music is its pentatonic nature. Man is hardwired to respond to pentatonic melodies beyond the influence of culture, and the traditional context for the playing of the tune is very strongly within our Western culture and a Christian worldview.
Interesting.
Some would attribute this to inspiration from the Deity.
Salt Lick writes: “I realized that, for me, its power comes not from the deeds of my ancestors — my relationship with my parents is respectful, but I do not admire them — but from moments of great courage imbedded in my broader American heritage, moments such as D-Day.”
Amen.
Given changing demographics of the family, changing cultural assumptions (insert favorite Whiskey observation here), and currents in revisionist history, I don’t feel overly optimistic about the survival and ongoing influence of the traditional values of honor and bravery. I hope I’m wrong.
We may be more likely to see the human craving for such values subverted towards utopian, socialistic ends, with support for a leader who will direct the people to a brave new world of liberte, egalite, et fraternite.
Thank you.
Isn’t part of the Problem with Amazing Grace that it too often has been associated with revisionist leftists?
Maybe that’s why the reading is more satisfying than the song.
Ingraham hosted callers with family members recounting D-Day Stories.
Another tear session.
Both for the incredible bravery and sacrifice,
but also for the lost sense of unity, patriotism and purpose,
now versus then.
Mark said “I don’t feel overly optimistic about the survival and ongoing influence of the traditional values of honor and bravery.”
I must differ. I have the honor to serve about twice a month at the USO at the Atlanta Airport. Its one of two portals for soldiers on R&R from the theater. I cant begin to describe the quality of these men and women. They are all people of which we can be very proud. I have read a lot of Yon and Totten’s work. Our soldiers are the equal and in some respects better than any we have ever fielded.
As to the influence of Honor and Bravery on the whole populace, a group of which I am a member erects a memorial to a KIA from Viet Nam. Its not the only regular memorial ceremony in the area.
The ideas are under attack surely. But as our host said a post or two ago, It is our responsibility to resist by writing, calling, speaking, teaching, supporting, doing all things that free people can do to advance and uphold these ideas.
Give money to the USO, tell some antimilitary twit to go to hell, thank a veteran or a soldier, get in a congresscritter (like Murtha)’s face, email some ‘journalist’, indict an impostor. Resist, Correct, Teach.
Never give in.
Doug the story of redemption in the story of the hymn is valid no matter who uses it. It applies to all men.
Herb–
The story of redemption applies to all women too, as Wretchard’s post from yesterday so well demonstrates.
Very moving. I’ve been to Omaha beach about three years ago. Any Muslim soldiers on these cemeteries?
How would one know?
Redemption in the modern sense = “I can do any evil thing I want, feel sorry for two seconds, and go on doing it.” That’s our post-modern world.
Yes, most people now think that WWII ended history, no more need for fighting, ever, because America rules reality, time, and space. Sigh.
Thank you, Wretchard !
“The Queen of England can do that brilliantly and she should have been there. She has nothing to prove and conveys the presence of her people”
though a representant of the “firm” was there, her son !
the royal family of England aren’t noble knights though
http://tinyurl.com/koqb7k
this was a big communication enterprise for both Sarko and Obama, Sarko need O presence for conforting his party place for the next euro_elections, O need to show to his compatriots how he cares of american military history
this shouldn’t only have been a franco_american affair, but a whole Alliees affair.
Thing were so, that O promised to Sarko (at the G20) that he would come on 6th june, as an excuse for making a pic with him, then, knowing that, all the other alliees responsibles wanted to be on the pic too, to what should usually have been a minor event. The big events are for the decennal anniversaries.
This was a media war (set by the classy Brits papers) about Sarko and Obama supposed dissent, that O cared of though, he then snubbed the Sarkos invitation for dinner…
Hitler took two and one half years building the Atlantic Wall. With God’s help the Allies took less than one day to breach it. Now Obama has taken less than a day to try and disrupt it. Lord help us all …..
With God’s help the Allies took less than one day to breach it.
NO, it took 3 year of trainings, plans, arms manufacturings
PA Cat: My Prayer Book says “Christ died for us men and our salvation” . That is always included women without question. Whiskey to the contrary notwithstanding.
Whiskey: go read Corinthians. Paul and James are not in conflict. B16 said “…that men often fall into misunderstandings that characterized the community of Corinth: “Those Christians thought that having been gratuitously justified in Christ by faith, ‘all things are lawful for them.”
America does rule time and space etc. and we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
[That editing toolbar is cool.]
From WWI, but in the same spirit of D-day on Omaha Beach, there is this undying poem: In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm
No one can read the following knowing he wrote it to a lady who had lost five …think about that: five to his war because he believed it was his. You may not want the gall but it is yours.
“Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom. –Abraham Lincoln.”
Hezbollosers!
My first Commanding Officer had worked his way up from Division Officer to Department head on the USS The Sullivans. Now we name warships after living politicians. What lesson does that teach to those who go in harm’s way?
Tom Hanks was invited to Omaha Beach.
The Queen of England was not.
Her Prime Minister did not know where he was.
Life, who cares, the queen said she didn’t !
Tom Hanks was there for his part in the Soldier Ryan, plus he openly endorsed Obama
Our country is in good hands when it comes to our military. The tradition of greatness continues. I have watched Marines train in the California desert and seen the National Guard visiting a shura in Afghanistan. These are impressive people. We are blessed to have a chance to honor their service.
Gen Petraeus talks of the “new greatest generation”. I think there is something to be said for that.
Why does our strange media shrug and look away??
Because it doesn’t fit the currently popular narrative, Rob. Remember, to our media elite, being in the military means you’re a poor ignorant schlub who couldn’t get into a good college. That’s why!
Salt Lick,
You aught to read the book “Eaters of the Dead” by Creighton. It is the book “13th Warrior” is based on. There is a passage in the book descibing the voyage to the Northland. They stop for provisions in Friesland, now part of Nederland and Germany and where my descendants lived. The passage brought tears to my eyes!
Another passage (film clip) that never fails to bring tears to my eyes is in the series “Band of Brothers”. It is the part where the Rangers are on the fence line of a Nederlander farm wondering if the occupants are NAZI symphatizers or Nederlander patriots. The answer to the Rangers came in the form of an orange sheet hung out of the farm house window. Orange is the royal color of Nederland, they were patriots! The Rangers were greeted with open arms then and to this day!
June 6 is special to me because it is the anniversary of my Oath of American Citizenship as well as D-Day. I consider it a happy coincidence! I get to celebrate the rescue of my old country, my motherland on the anniversary of becoming a citizen of my chosen country.
May Allah bless America!
Salaam eleikum Y’all!
From Marzouq, lover of Love, hater of Hate, seeker of truth.
I fly like a cruise missile through the gaps, under the radar to deliver my payload of love and deeper understanding!
marek @ 22:
I don’t know if there any any muslim soldiers buried in the Normandy cemeteries, but I did a project at the National Cemetery in San Bruno, where the official US government tombstones are marked with symbols for the religion of the interred.
Crosses for Christians of all types, Star of David for Jews, Wheel of Life for Bhuddists, crescent for Muslims. I do not remember how the stones were marked for atheists, agnostics or declined to state’s, although I am guessing they were simply un-inscribed where the symbol would have been.
Spent about two months on the job. Very peaceful and green, row on row of white headstones, not spooky at all. Makes me think I might want that option , which is open to all veterans, when the time comes.
I managed to get a copy of the original cite for my father’s Silver Star, complete with smudges and so forth.
Printed it out on good paper, framed it, and gave it to him on his eighty-ninth birthday.
Thing is, my son e-mailed the thing to his friends, brothers-in-law, and colleagues, because he was so proud (“brought tears to my eyes”).
So, one way or another, some are finding out, even if their teachers had hoped they wouldn’t.