Changing the Color of Our Stripes (Anniversary of D-day, 2009)
I watched, mesmerized, my coffee still hot, my feet comfy in fleece.
Angela Merkel spoke first and she did so with the reverence and conviction one would expect of her position. When it was time, the President of the United States stepped up to the podium, his scripted words flowing smooth like silk across velvet. With stern expression, he chastised from a distance those whose hands he shook the day before, never once raising the topic to their faces.
At last, the final speaker took the stage. He was an old, dignified appearing gentleman with a thick European accent and long thin gray hair which the breeze messed as he looked side to side. This man spoke with sincerity of his experience in the death camp, and he queried whether the people of the world had changed in the past sixty years. He spoke of the Holocaust, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia. When he finished, the old man hugged our president, who had no doubt heard his words; but did he hear the message?
Each speaker had recognized the role of the United States in bringing that war to an end, though none mentioned the atrocities we committed, and there were many. Perhaps the greatest was that we were late into World War II, delayed by the well-intentioned but misguided efforts of America First and other antiwar movements, while the stage was set for genocide. How many died because of the hate of some and the ignorance of others.
Years after, over and again, history repeats itself. We were late in Bosnia because of antiwar lobbyists and opinions from foreign peoples. We allowed public opinion to dictate our early withdraw in the first Iraq conflict resulting in the deaths of thousands. We stood by and watched as bodies stacked in Rwanda. We never talk of the 1.5 million who died during the Cambodian Genocide which occurred after we withdrew our troops in shame from Vietnam.
So, in echoing the words of that frail Holocaust survivor, have we as a people changed? As we myopically concern ourselves with the issues of the day, hiding behind compassion for the few, how many more are destined to suffer because of ignorance?
Perhaps the answer lies in remembering who we are as a people. The Great Seal of the United States of America symbolizes the virtues on which our nation is founded: strength, the importance of being true to ourselves regardless of opinion, the powers of both peace and conflict for the betterment of man. The colors of the stripes and bar, they’re important too as they stand for valor, justice, vigilance, and purity.
If this is not what we are about, then it is time to change the color of our stripes. If instead we are to be true to our heritage, we must stop apologizing to the world for standing against tyranny and instead promise we will never again ignore the suffering of others.
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