A Day That Will Live In Infamy -- Freedom isn't Free

Nietzche is Dead ^ | 7 Dec 08 | foutsc

[foutsc]

Frenchman crying - June, 1940 He cries as he watches the German soldiers marching down the Champs Elysees. The glory of France has been ground underfoot by Hitler's goose-stepping legions. In a matter of weeks, the vaunted French army, the Maginot Line, and all of France's pride has been destroyed by the Nazi blitzkrieg. He is a middle-aged man, maybe in his mid Forties. Look at his tears, his tie, his nice suit. He survived World War One and looks like he has since prospered. And now? The night has fallen over France, and soon, all of Europe. He cries for the Twentieth Century. Picture and caption: http://www.acepilots.com My wife and I took our kids to a museum here in town on December 7th a few years ago. While there, we had the good fortune to meet a WW II Navy veteran who had survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. We also encountered the famous WW II picture of the Frenchman crying. These two contrasting encounters taught my family a lesson that I want to share with you.

At the beginning of our tour I spied the aging sailor wearing a veteran’s garrison cap emblazoned with the words “Pearl Harbor Survivor.” I crouched down and quickly tutored my children on Pearl Harbor, WW II, and the man’s significance upon that historical landscape. Fortunately, the kids grasped the meaning of the moment and we approached the gentleman. A mellow, unassuming man, he treated our questions with kindness and received our thanks with humility.

At the end of our museum tour we came face to face with the elderly veteran’s polar opposite: the picture of the Frenchman crying. Many of my fellow Americans would probably enjoy hearty anti-French belly laughs at this picture. But I feel only a profound, heart-tugging sadness when I gaze upon that pitiable countenance. This is the face of a people who lacked the will to defend their freedom. This is the face that traded war and its attendant violence for subjugation and humiliation.

I felt just as compelled to introduce my children to the Frenchman crying as I did to the aging hero. I directed my kids’ attention to the picture and asked them to describe it. “He’s crying,” and “That man is sad,” were the answers I got. They could see his distress and wanted to know what had caused it.

I told them this is how you end up when you're unable or unwilling to fight for your freedom. I told them that if they were not prepared to risk their lives for their country, they had better be prepared to stand on the street crying as the conquerors march by. I insisted they study the picture some more, observe the pain on the man’s face, notice the tears running down his cheeks. “Remember that face,” I told them, “and may you never experience his misfortune.”

Reliance on Maginot Lines and international organizations provides a sense of security--up until the inevitable failure of such contrivances. Then, alas, it is back to blood and steel. Sadly, we are all too human after all.

The veteran and the Frenchman stand in stark contrast. Taken together, they remind us of two unyielding truths: The opposite of war is not necessarily peace, and freedom is never free.

[LibertyRocks]

You have managed to express this lesson so well in your article. I will be sharing it with my daughters later tonight. Thanks for sharing it.

[Paladin2]

How to we get to protect ourselves from the likes of Dodd, Frank, Pelosi and Reid?

[realdifferent1]

On the morning of Nov 5th, I knew exactly how that poor french man felt.

[Oatka]

I can’t find the source now, but I read that the French, in an attempt to maintain their “honor”, said the guy was an Italian.

[ggekko60506]

I too used to laugh at this photograph. I also thought it embodied the the spirit of French decline and effeteness.

Now that I am older I realize that the defeatist, defensive mentality that dominated Vichy France can infect and sap the spirit of any nation. I also came to know that the politicians of pre-War France resembled in a remarkable and very scary way the weakness, timidity and mendacity of American politicians of out present day. We have urgent national problems which our politicians refuse to discuss because it is uncomfortable or it will offend some special interest pressure group. The spirit of Vichy is alive in America.

We desperately need a leader or Reagan’s caliber to re-awaken the sleeping National spirit. In Irving Kristol’s book “World War IV” he shows how the itellligentsia systematically undermined the war effort in Viet Nam by attacking its moral legitimacy. We are witnessing the exact same process with War against Islamo-Fascism.

The author’s evocation of the spirit of Vichy is haunting. I pray that some figure arises soon before we slip into our own long, dark night of tyranny.

[grey_whiskers]

Thunderous Applause!

Consider yourself *highly* commended, sir!

[freema]

I thought you might like to read what foutsc wrote. It’s pretty excellent.

[rightwingextremist1776]

Thank you....for all your pings! Semper Fi!

[Peter Horry]

“On the morning of Nov 5th, I knew exactly how that poor french man felt.”

I have read claims that France was “broken” during WW I and never recovered. Sometimes I wonder if the same thing didn’t happen to England, and even the US, after WW II. Even as we appeared to stand strong during the Cold War, there was an underlying weakness, much like rot in a large oak, that has only grown worse. A controlling plurality (or amplified minority) seem to have lost heart and fear freedom, and long for only security.

[AZ .44 MAG]

Foutsc, outstanding post.

Freema, thanks for the ping.

[Marine_Uncle]

A good read indeed.

[Iron Munro]

"How to we get to protect ourselves from the likes of Dodd, Frank, Pelosi and Reid?"

My first thought when I read this article is that leadership makes the difference between a society that ends up bemoaning the loss of their nation to despair and helplessness and one that goes forward every day with national pride and confidence in their future.

On the one hand we have a photo of a man crying in the street for the lost values, valor and pride of their country.

On the other hand. today we see people rioting in our own streets and working hard in other ways to destroy those same qualities in our own country.

Then I saw this post:

"How to we get to protect ourselves from the likes of Dodd, Frank, Pelosi and Reid?"

Therein lies the question and the solution - how to get rid of the same kind of leadership that has brought other great nations down and now infests our own government at all levels.

Congress and the Senate have had an approval rating around 15% yet people keep re-electing the same crooks and shysters year in and year out.

As long as these low quality people can continue to buy votes by pandering to special interests and protected classes with taxpayers money there doesn't seem to be much hope short of a violent change in direction.

Many critics of the income tax forsaw the day when the flow of taxpayer money into the hands of politicians and other scoundrels would feed the downfall of the Republic.
It looks as if they were right.