Posted on 09/24/2005 7:01:59 AM PDT by newsgatherer
If you live in the DC area and have a digital camera and happen to be going to the World War Two monument, would you consider taking a picture of the speech by Roosevelt?
I am going to do a follow up on this:
The Omission From the New W.W.II Memorial
Email to CNIM
Today I went to visit the new World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. I got an unexpected history lesson. Since 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 Ike 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 woman read the words aloud: " With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph."
But as she read, she was suddenly angry. "Wait a minute," she said. "They left out the end of the quote. They left out the most important part. Roosevelt said: "so help us God."
"You're probably right," her husband said. "We're not supposed to say things like that now."
"I know I'm right," she insisted. "I remember the speech" The two shook their heads sadly and walked away.
Listening to their conversation, I thought to myself, "Well, it has been 50 years. She's probably forgotten." But she was right I went home and pulled out the book my book club is reading. It's "Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradley. It's all about Iwo Jima. I haven't gotten too far in the book. It's tough to read because it's a graphic description of the battles in the Pacific.
But right there it was on page 58. Roosevelt's speech to the nation It ends "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.
WHO GAVE THEM THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE WORDS OF HISTORY?????????
Send this around to your friends. People need to know before everyone forgets. People today are trying to change the history of America by leaving God out of i t, but the truth is, God has been a part of this nation, since the beginning. He still wants to be...
And I would like to be able to include a digital picture showing the speech itself.
Thanks,
Jake
If you could put it up here or email it to me at: honest_news@hotmail.com
Thanks again.
Revisionist crap. File that with the Enola Gay controversy. Crock of crap history!!
Lest we forget it took 60 years to complete this memorial. 60 years to honor the Greatest Generation. Disgusting.
javascript:popupnew('archives/factsheets/inscriptions.htm')
National World War II Memorial Inscriptions
The following inscriptions are inscribed in the National World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. The inscriptions are presented by location.
Announcement Stone
HERE IN THE PRESENCE OF WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN,
ONE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FATHER AND THE OTHER THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY PRESERVER OF OUR NATION, WE HONOR
THOSE TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICANS WHO TOOK UP THE STRUGGLE
DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND MADE THE SACRIFICES TO
PERPETUATE THE GIFT OUR FOREFATHERS ENTRUSTED TO US:
A NATION CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY AND JUSTICE.
Flagpoles
AMERICANS CAME TO LIBERATE, NOT TO CONQUER,
TO RESTORE FREEDOM AND TO END TYRANNY
Eastern Corners
PEARL HARBOR
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.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
THEY HAVE GIVEN THEIR SONS TO THE MILITARY SERVICES. THEY
HAVE STOKED THE FURNACES AND HURRIED THE FACTORY WHEELS.
THEY HAVE MADE THE PLANES AND WELDED THE TANKS,
RIVETED THE SHIPS AND ROLLED THE SHELLS.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
WOMEN WHO STEPPED UP WERE MEASURED AS CITIZENS OF THE NATION,
NOT AS WOMEN…THIS WAS A PEOPLE’S WAR, AND EVERYONE WAS IN IT.
Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby
THEY FOUGHT TOGETHER AS BROTHERS-IN-ARMS.
THEY DIED TOGETHER AND NOW THEY SLEEP SIDE BY SIDE.
TO THEM WE HAVE A SOLEMN OBLIGATION.
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
Southern Walls
BATTLE OF MIDWAY JUNE 4-7, 1942
THEY HAD NO RIGHT TO WIN. YET THEY DID, AND IN DOING SO THEY CHANGED
THE COURSE OF A WAR…EVEN AGAINST THE GREATEST OF ODDS, THERE IS
SOMETHING IN THE HUMAN SPIRIT – A MAGIC BLEND OF SKILL, FAITH AND
VALOR – THAT CAN LIFT MEN FROM CERTAIN DEFEAT TO INCREDIBLE VICTORY.
Walter Lord, Author
THE WAR’S END
TODAY THE GUNS ARE SILENT. A GREAT TRAGEDY HAS ENDED. A GREAT
VICTORY HAS BEEN WON. THE SKIES NO LONGER RAIN DEATH – THE SEAS
BEAR ONLY COMMERCE – MEN EVERYWHERE WALK UPRIGHT IN THE
SUNLIGHT. THE ENTIRE WORLD IS QUIETLY AT PEACE.
General Douglas MacArthur
Northern Walls
WE ARE DETERMINED THAT BEFORE THE SUN SETS ON THIS TERRIBLE STRUGGLE
OUR FLAG WILL BE RECOGNIZED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AS A SYMBOL OF
FREEDOM ON THE ONE HAND AND OF OVERWHELMING FORCE ON THE OTHER.
General George C. Marshall
D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944
YOU ARE ABOUT TO EMBARK UPON THE GREAT CRUSADE TOWARD
WHICH WE HAVE STRIVEN THESE MANY MONTHS. THE EYES OF
THE WORLD ARE UPON YOU…I HAVE FULL CONFIDENCE IN YOUR
COURAGE, DEVOTION TO DUTY AND SKILL IN BATTLE.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Western Corners
OUR DEBT TO THE HEROIC MEN AND VALIANT WOMEN IN THE SERVICE
OF OUR COUNTRY CAN NEVER BE REPAID. THEY HAVE EARNED OUR
UNDYING GRATITUDE. AMERICA WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR SACRIFICES.
President Harry S Truman
THE HEROISM OF OUR OWN TROOPS…WAS MATCHED BY THAT
OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE NATIONS THAT FOUGHT BY OUR
SIDE…THEY ABSORBED THE BLOWS…AND THEY SHARED TO THE
FULL IN THE ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENEMY.
President Harry S Truman
Southern Fountain Copings
CHINA * BURMA * INDIA SOUTHWEST PACIFIC CENTRAL PACIFIC NORTH PACIFIC
PEARL HARBOR * WAKE ISLAND * BATAAN CORREGIDOR * CORAL SEA *
MIDWAY * GUADALCANAL * NEW GUINEA * BUNA * TARAWA *
KWAJALEIN * ATTU * SAIPAN TINIAN GUAM * PHILIPPINE SEA * PELELIU *
LEYTE GULF * LUZON * MANILA * IWO JIMA * OKINAWA * JAPAN
Northern Fountain Copings
NORTH AFRICA SOUTHERN EUROPE WESTERN EUROPE CENTRAL EUROPE
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC * MURMANSK RUN * TUNISIA *
SICILY SALERNO ANZIO ROME PO VALLEY * NORMANDY *
ST.LO * AIR WAR IN EUROPE * ALSACE * RHINELAND *
HUERTGEN FOREST * BATTLE OF THE BULGE *
REMAGEN BRIDGE * GERMANY
Southern and Northern Arches
1941 – 1945 VICTORY ON LAND VICTORY AT SEA VICTORY IN THE AIR
Freedom Wall – Field of Gold Stars
HERE WE MARK THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
I'm not saying anything.
That is what was on their website.
Wonder if we could start a movement to get those words etched in...seems like the right thing to do!
But, if it is true, we agree with your idea.
I wonder. Seems to me I have read about this before, tho. And it would be a very wrongful ommission on the part of the folks who chose the various quotes.
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