A DIFFERENT TIME: SYDNEY WILLIAMS
http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com
As Americans we have choices, except when we don’t. When liberty is at risk, we have a duty to ensure that freedom reigns. In his Farewell Address (published in September 1796), George Washington wrote: “The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils and joint efforts – of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.” There are times when liberty needs defending.
While Washington, in the same Address, warned against foreign entanglements, he could not have foreseen how the world would shrink. By the dawn of the 20th Century, steamships and later air travel shortened distances across the Atlantic and Pacific, encouraging commerce, trade and tourism. Obligations, embedded in treaties and alliances, extended beyond our borders. By the late 1930s Europe was mired in a second world war, brought about by Hitler’s hatred for Jews and his desire for lebensraum – living space. Over the course of almost six years he and his NAZIs murdered seven million Jews. At its peak, in November 1942, Germany dominated Europe. Apart from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal, Germany’s occupation extended 2,500 miles, from Brittany east to Stalingrad (now Volgograd), and 2,100 miles from Helsinki south to Athens. As well, they controlled a good part of North Africa.
On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked our naval base at Pearl Harbor. The next day, the U.S. declared war on Japan. In his address to Congress on December 8, President Roosevelt committed the United States: “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.” Three days later, Germany declared war on the United States. Two years later, by early 1944, the momentum of the War, which in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East was in its fifth year, favored the Allies. Even so, some of its costliest battles – the invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, Okinawa, and Iwo Jima – were still in the future. Millions of soldiers and civilians were yet to die.
Eighty years ago this spring my father, a 33-year-old married father of three was drafted into the U.S. military, one of ten million American men drafted into the armed forces over the three years and nine months the United States was in the War. My father was an artist who abhorred violence. While he was not a pacifist, he was not a warrior; he never owned a weapon. When in combat in Italy’s Apennines, he became a runner so he wouldn’t have to carry a rifle. But still, when called to serve, he went; because of his age, he was more aware of the risks than his much younger fellow soldiers. Today, I wonder about our youth – offered safe spaces and protected against harmful words – are they ready to respond to such a call?
Very few Americans alive now were of draft age during World War II. Yet, from a nation of 160 million people, about 19 million men and women served in the armed forces during the War. What would be the response today to such threats to democracy, to the freedom we and others have? When we see so many abandoning Israel in their time of need, expressing ambivalence about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or evading the consequences of a China intent on destroying democracy in Hong Kong and threatening Taiwan, one wonders – have we lost our moral fiber?
Do we realize how fortunate we are to live in this place at this time? Are we aware of what the founders of this nation created in 1776? Do we honor all those who have left hearth and home to defend our rights and the rights of freedom-loving people in other nations? Do we realize that freedom is not free, that it must be defended? My father went to Italy with the 10th Mountain Division in early 1945, where he served in the 87th Regiment. The Division was tasked with breaking through the Gothic Line, which Germany had established north of Florence in late summer 1944. In just over two months of intense fighting in early 194 301 soldiers from the 87th Regiment were killed, 25 from my father’s company out of perhaps 200 men. He wrote to my mother from Camp Carlson on October 19, 1945: “I become more and more surprised that I ever lived through it at all. There would have been very few of us left if it had lasted any longer.”
We cannot recover the past, but we can learn from it. And, in this age of ethical equivocation and moral relativism, we should never forget that there are universal principles, embedded in the inseparability of religion and morality, that are eternal. In his Farewell Address quoted above, Washington wrote: “Of all the habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
Our homes, families, friends, and communities descend from a system we inherited. Our duty is to ensure they are there to pass on to succeeding generations. In a letter to my mother written on March 15, 1944, a week after he had been inducted, my father wrote from Alabama’s Fort McClellan: “They seem to want you to forget about home as quickly as possible, which seems foolish because if it wasn’t for that there wouldn’t be any point to all of this anyway.” It is for our homes, families and neighbors, but also for our unique country and the freedom for which it stands, that men and women have given their lives over the past two and a half centuries. The U.S. may not be perfect, but why do you think so many clamor to get here? In this world, the United States stands alone.
We do live in a different time. Consumer products have improved living standards. Technology has bettered our lives in a way unrecognizable to those of eighty years ago. We live more open, more equitable and less structured lives. But some things do not (or should not) change – that diligence and hard work are integral for success, that obeisance to the Golden Rule will make us better citizens, that moral lessons from Aesop’s Fables help mold our characters, and that adherence to George Washington’s Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior make us better people. Each generation greets new opportunities and confronts new obstacles, which, individually and collectively, they must take advantage of or overcome. Accepting challenges, taking responsibility, helping others, admitting mistakes, and reaping rewards are all part of the American experience in any time.
The “Greatest Generation” rose to challenges they faced. We must ensure we do so as well.
Comments are closed.
