This Day in History

On this day in history, many important things occurred. The most famous likely is D-Day, or the Allied invasion of Normandy. George Orwell published 1984. The Battle of Midway and the Battle of Belleau Woods were fought during the day. In 1933, the  first drive-in movie theater opened. This is just the tip of the iceberg of events which occurred on June 6th-ranging from the YMCA, Sex and the City, my own birth, and the destruction of the Confederate navy.
I confess, my favorite has always been the Battle of Normandy. I learned about this in the first grade. The teacher asked the class if they knew what the day was. She told them that it was D-Day and wondered if we knew what that meant. Someone raised their hand and said "Today is D--------'s birthday and that it why it is D-Day." She laughed and corrected us. When I learned that my great-uncle, who I never met, left his leg on Omaha Beach, my interest in this event only increased. Eisenhower's gamble turned out to be one of the most successful, if bloody day for the Allies when over 155,000 American, Canadian, and British troops took the coast of France. Though their courage and quick-thinking have been honored probably in hundreds of media venues but we should take this day to remember that it is easy to think about historic causalities  as just numbers. However, if there was ever a single day in Iraq or Afghanistan where over two thousand lives were lost, there would be immediate uproar and perhaps retreat. We need to remember the Greatest Generation who were so willing to give their lives for their country, when a single battle could yield the same causalities of a whole war today. We also need to remember that these men, who would be quite elderly with large families if alive today, were full of the same hopes and dreams that our young men have now, and sacrificed them for a greater cause.