Showing posts with label war and peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war and peace. Show all posts

01 May 2011

ding dong...

...the douche is dead! i've never felt so much joy over someone's death. but osama bin laden is one mother fucker who deserves our celebrating his demise.

the end.

~k

p.s. i seriously need to stop watching the commentary and go to bed so i can start my new job tomorrow after a good night's rest.

08 December 2009

our unlikely story

in honor of my geekiness, i'm well into my next presidential biography, John Adams. and i have to say, it is a work of historical art as masterfully written by David McCullough as my beloved Truman.

though i'm but a quarter into this magnificent read, i am shaken to my core in knowing this story's unlikely outcome.

the odds were stacked so highly against us. we were but a band of rebels in a merciless land, with no military experience, no weapons, no numbers to match that of the renowned and successful british armada. we were doomed to fail, but for a good bit of good fortune, a fate most certainly written in the stars, and those men and women who had the courage, passion, and unyielding conviction to put their lives on the line for their cause. for our cause. for the american cause.

if more americans today were as wedded to the american cause, ours might not be as stricken with ambivalence and apathy, and a fruitless fight for the sake of nothing more than the acts of the contrary.

but i am a believer, and i believe with all my heart that america is still that ideal our forefathers believed so deeply that they were willing to sacrifice their everything. and because i have hope, because i believe that, "in the unlikely story that is america, there is nothing false about hope," onward i march in furtherance of and toward that ideal. that american cause.

~k

26 November 2009

the normandy enigma

i visited normandy yesterday, and spent a day as lovely as it was somber, with my mind grappling with the serenity of the scene and the horror that succombed those beaches in june of 1944.

on d-day, 6 june 1944, general eisenhower launched the world's greatest invasion. allied forces, more than 150,000 in number, stormed five beaches along the northern coast of france, taking the nazi army by complete surprise, and turning the tide of world war ii. within months, germany surrendered, and the end of the world's greatest and most destructive war came soon thereafter.

i can only imagine what normandy felt, sounded, and looked like during that fateful invasions. bombs rocking the ground, the blood of fallen soldiers coloring red the waves crashing onto the shore, bullets flying, planes soaring overhead, screams of injured troops and civilians filling the air with terror, and the general sense that the hope of the future lie only in the success of this battle. fear, terror, hope, and the stench of death abound.

yesterday, though, it was serene. the beaches extraordinarily beautiful, the weather perfect. off the coast, remains of the temporary harbors remain in tact, providing only an overview of what the coast might have resembled that morning. the day was beautiful, albeit chilly (it is november), and because it's off-season, it was quiet, lonely, and barren. had i not known these beaches are best known for a military battle, i'd never've guessed as much.

the american cemetery is also very beautiful, serene, and because it sits on the cliff overlooking the english channel it's got an incredible view. the pride i felt standing amongst those thousands of crosses and memorial, overlooking the harbor from whence those men and women sacrificed their lives in furtherance of freedom, cannot be expressed. there are some feelings the english language is far too paltry to impart...

though 'twas not an easy journey (it's long and far), the landing beaches, memorials, museums, and cemeteries of normandy are places all americans should experience.

~k