[Rhodes22-list] Omaha Beach - History and politics (anyone know
what day it is?)
Bill Effros
bill at effros.com
Tue Jun 6 19:35:14 EDT 2006
Very close, so I assume you know.
Bill Effros
brad haslett wrote:
> Bill,
>
> Help me out here. Did he used to ride a unicycle?
>
> Brad
>
> --- Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Brad,
>>
>> I assume you know David Gelernter's other claim to
>> fame?
>>
>> Bill
>>
>> brad haslett wrote:
>>
>>> This is a good day to call my dad. BTW, thank you
>>> Stan. Brad
>>>
>>> ----------------
>>>
>>> Too Much, Too Late
>>> Baby boomers heap insincere praise on the
>>>
>> "greatest
>>
>>> generation."
>>>
>>> BY DAVID GELERNTER
>>> Friday, June 4, 2004 12:01 a.m.
>>>
>>> My political credo is simple and many people share
>>>
>> it:
>>
>>> I am against phonies. A cultural establishment
>>>
>> that
>>
>>> (on the whole) doesn't give a damn about World War
>>>
>> II
>>
>>> or its veterans thinks it can undo a half-century
>>>
>> of
>>
>>> indifference verging on contempt by repeating a
>>>
>> silly
>>
>>> phrase ("the greatest generation") like a magic
>>>
>> spell
>>
>>> while deploying fulsome praise like carpet
>>>
>> bombing.
>>
>>> The campaign is especially intense among members
>>>
>> of
>>
>>> the 1960s generation who once chose to treat all
>>> present and former soldiers like dirt and are
>>>
>> willing
>>
>>> at long last to risk some friendly words about
>>>
>> World
>>
>>> War II veterans, now that most are safely
>>>
>> underground
>>
>>> and guaranteed not to talk back, enjoy their
>>>
>> celebrity
>>
>>> or start acting like they own the joint. A quick
>>> glance at the famous Hemingway B.S. detector shows
>>>
>> the
>>
>>> needle pegged at Maximum, where it's been all
>>>
>> week,
>>
>>> from Memorial Day through the D-Day anniversary
>>> run-up.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> When I was in junior high school long ago, a
>>>
>> touring
>>
>>> arts program visited schools in New York state.
>>>
>> One
>>
>>> performance consisted of a celebrated actress
>>>
>> reciting
>>
>>> Emily Dickinson's poetry onstage for 90 minutes or
>>>
>> so.
>>
>>> I defy any audience to listen attentively to 90
>>> minutes of Dickinson without showing the strain,
>>>
>> and
>>
>>> my school definitely wasn't having any.
>>> A few minutes into the show, the auditorium was
>>>
>> alive
>>
>>> with student chatter, so loud a buzz you could
>>>
>> barely
>>
>>> hear the performance. Being a poetry-lover, I
>>>
>> devoted
>>
>>> myself to setting an example of rapt attention
>>>
>> for,
>>
>>> maybe, five minutes, at which point I threw in the
>>> towel and joined the mass murmur.
>>>
>>> The actress manfully completed her performance.
>>>
>> When
>>
>>> it was over we gave her a stupendous ovation. We
>>>
>> were
>>
>>> glad it was finished and (more important) knew
>>> perfectly well that we had behaved like pigs and
>>> intended to make up for it by clapping and roaring
>>>
>> and
>>
>>> shouting. But the performer wasn't having any. She
>>> gave us a cold curtsy and left the stage and would
>>>
>> not
>>
>>> return for a second bow.
>>>
>>> I have always admired her for that: a more
>>>
>> memorable
>>
>>> declaration than anything Dickinson ever wrote.
>>>
>> And
>>
>>> today's endless ovation for World War II vets
>>>
>> doesn't
>>
>>> change the fact that this nation has behaved
>>> boorishly, with colossal disrespect. If we cared
>>>
>> about
>>
>>> that war, the men who won it and the ideas it
>>> suggests, we would teach our children (at least)
>>>
>> four
>>
>>> topics:
>>>
>>> . The major battles of the war. When I was a child
>>>
>> in
>>
>>> the 1960s, names like Corregidor and Iwo Jima were
>>> still sacred, and pronounced everywhere with
>>>
>> respect.
>>
>>> Writing in the 1960s about the battle of Midway,
>>> Samuel Eliot Morison stepped out of character to
>>>
>> plead
>>
>>> with his readers: "Threescore young aviators . . .
>>>
>> met
>>
>>> flaming death that day in reversing the verdict of
>>> battle. Think of them, reader, every Fourth of
>>>
>> June.
>>
>>> They and their comrades who survived changed the
>>>
>> whole
>>
>>> course of the Pacific War." Today the Battle of
>>>
>> Midway
>>
>>> has become niche-market nostalgia material, and
>>>
>> most
>>
>>> children (and many adults) have never heard of it.
>>> Thus we honor "the greatest generation." (And if I
>>> hear that phrase one more time I will surely
>>>
>> puke.)
>>
>>> . The bestiality of the Japanese. The Japanese
>>>
>> army
>>
>>> saw captive soldiers as cowards, lower than lice.
>>>
>> If
>>
>>> we forget this we dishonor the thousands who were
>>> tortured and murdered, and put ourselves in danger
>>>
>> of
>>
>>> believing the soul-corroding lie that all cultures
>>>
>> are
>>
>>> equally bad or good. Some Americans nowadays seem
>>>
>> to
>>
>>> think America's behavior during the war was worse
>>>
>> than
>>
>>> Japan's--we did intern many loyal Americans of
>>> Japanese descent. That was unforgivable--and
>>> unspeakably trivial compared to Japan's unique
>>> achievement, mass murder one atrocity at a time.
>>>
>>> In "The Other Nuremberg," Arnold Brackman cites
>>>
>> (for
>>
>>> instance) "the case of Lucas Doctolero, crucified,
>>> nails driven through hands, feet and skull"; "the
>>>
>> case
>>
>>> of a blind woman who was dragged from her home
>>> November 17, 1943, stripped naked, and hanged";
>>>
>> "five
>>
>>> Filipinos thrown into a latrine and buried alive."
>>>
>> In
>>
>>> the Japanese-occupied Philippines alone, at least
>>> 131,028 civilians and Allied prisoners of war were
>>> murdered. The Japanese committed crimes against
>>>
>> Allied
>>
>>> POWs and Asians that would be hard still, today,
>>>
>> for a
>>
>>> respectable newspaper even to describe. Mr.
>>>
>> Brackman's
>>
>>> 1987 book must be read by everyone who cares about
>>> World War II and its veterans, or the human race.
>>>
>>> . The attitude of American intellectuals. Before
>>>
>> Pearl
>>
>>> Harbor but long after the character of Hitlerism
>>>
>> was
>>
>>> clear--after the Nuremberg laws, the Kristallnacht
>>> pogrom, the establishment of Dachau and the
>>> Gestapo--American intellectuals tended to be dead
>>> against the U.S. joining Britain's war on Hitler.
>>>
>>> Today's students learn (sometimes) about
>>>
>> right-wing
>>
>>> isolationists like Charles Lindbergh and the
>>>
>> America
>>
>>> Firsters. They are less likely to read documents
>>>
>> like
>>
>>> this, which appeared in Partisan Review (the U.S.
>>> intelligentsia's No. 1 favorite mag) in fall 1939,
>>> signed by John Dewey, William Carlos Williams,
>>>
>> Meyer
>>
>>> Schapiro and many more of the era's leading
>>>
>> lights.
>>
>>> "The last war showed only too clearly that we can
>>>
>> have
>>
>>> no faith in imperialist crusades to bring freedom
>>>
>> to
>>
>>> any people. Our entry into the war, under the
>>>
>> slogan
>>
>>> of 'Stop Hitler!' would actually result in the
>>> immediate introduction of totalitarianism over
>>>
>> here. .
>>
>>
> === message truncated ===
>
>
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