Today is D-Day

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy, but how many of us took time from our busy lives to notice? All the riches around us, the security, the freedom, the opportunities to live a fantastic life…do we ever stop to feel grateful? More specifically, do we ever stop to feel grateful to the boys who died to make all this possible? When did it become uncool to honor or even notice those who gave their lives so that we could live in freedom and peace? Have we become such an ungrateful nation?

I really want to know, because the few paragraphs that encompassed each war in our history books really didn’t even come close to teaching me anything about the depth of the sacrifices that have been made over the last 200 years. How could it be that it took decades before I even got a clue?

The Normans, Dutch and Belgians get it.  Every year they have children bear flowers, conduct ceremonies, put out signs, and generally make Americans feel like the most appreciated humans on earth. Yes, even the French. They dress up in American uniforms, hold American flags aloft, and remember every day how fortunate they are that the Allies liberated them.

No matter where I went in Normandy I was celebrated and made welcome. I basked in the glory of being American, part-owner of the powerful legacy of liberators. My people, our people, fought, died and survived to save the world, and I’m bursting with pride at having been born to such an incredible race of warriors and statesman. We Americans are truly the luckiest and most blessed people perhaps to have ever lived on this planet. I enjoy every second of it, but I can’t help but feel like I didn’t do anything to bring all this bounty upon myself.

We owe it all to them.