Well said, all. We watched "Midway" (the old one, though I hear the new one's better) over lunch today. Though not a vet myself, I know a bit about the War, so I was able to give a bit of commentary. My 12 year old was surprised to hear that, if we had lost that battle, big parts of our country might well have been speaking Japanese for a long time afterward. I hope it drove home to her that we are only what we are (including having the right to express "mixed feelings" about our country) because of the blessing of God and the bravery of a few. We are SO secure, it's hard to imagine anything different. It's hard to imagine what could have been.
O beautiful for heroes, proved in liberating strife,
who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.
America, America, may God thy gold refine
'til all success be nobleness and every gain divine.
--Catherine Bates
O thus be it ever when free men shall stand
between their loved homes and the war's desolation.
Blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just
and this be our motto: In God is our trust.
And the Star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
--Francis Scott Key
