DON'T TREAD ON MY MEMORIES

I have come to the realization, particularly in my elder years, that many of the ideals by which I have lived are outmoded or obsolete by contemporary standards of the young. History, for example, the study of the past which has so often been useful in furnishing guiding lights for the future, is neglected. “The past is a bucket of ashes ,” wryly noted the poet T.S. Eliot. How many of the young today know more than the barest of bones about their own country? You would be astounded by the number of people in America who don’t know where Canada or Mexico is located, or able to name cities in those neighboring countries, not to mention have any knowledge of their histories.

In terms of history, World War II is one of my most vivid memories, not because I participated in it---I just missed it--, but because my late childhood and teen-age years ensued during the period from 1939 to 1945. The memories are etched deeply because my two older brothers were involved in that hellish conflagration, the middle brother killed in the Phillippines and the eldest shot down but, fortunately surviving and returning home. When you have those traumas as part of your life, you never forget the significance of the events of that war. I can still name the major areas of conflict and battles within those theatres of war; I can remember many of the paramount generals and admirals of the war; I can remember most of the planes, Allied and Fascist by their designation: I.e,., P-51 Mustang, B-26 Liberator (my brother was Navigator in one), P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, B-17 Flying Fortress, Messerschmitt 109, Focke -Wulf Spitfire, Hurricane, Zero, et. al. My British wife has her memories of being evacuated from a London suburb and living for some months in the country away from the bombings and from her mother, her father being away serving in the R.A.F.

With a trove of memories from this great conflict, which preserved and in many ways shaped this world of today, I am deeply saddened---and angered---by the ignorance of many, old and young, who simply don’t know or care about it. And I am infuriated when I read about those who desecrate those memories. In England recently, a young woman, flanked by lines of former servicemen, outside the Magistrates’ Court in Blackpool, raced down the line and urinated and performed sexual act at the town’s centotaph. Two other cases of pissing on memorials have occurred here, as well as a Muslim spraying graffiti in glorifying Osama Bin Laden on another memorial. I am confident similar offenses have occurred in the U.S.A. I realize many are disillusioned and expressing anti-war sentiments, but it is foul and, yes, evil to sully the honored dead. Protest a war, fine; dishonor memories, hell no.

It would never occur to those protesters that their right to protest is in good part due to those honored dead who fought and died to preserve the freedoms we have today.

I am ashamed of their insensitivity and ignorance. Part of their punishment should be an enforced study of history, particularly the two great wars of the twentieth century. Then they should scrub the monuments, memorials and cenotaphs on a weekly basis for some weeks.

These memories are too precious to be ill-treated.