I was born in March of 1941. Like today, the world was at war in many areas back then. Our country was trying hard to stay out of conflict but in December of that year the war came to our shores and we couldn't stay out of it any longer. I write from what I learned from history books, not from memory. My world at that time was mostly confined to a small circle around my parents gaze. The unfolding war after that attack on Pearl Harbor touched every American that wasn't living behind a rock. A unified Congress, president and nation said to the enemies, "Now you done it and now you're going to pay for that," and it would best explain the attitude of that time.
Fast forward six years to a country riding the coattails of victory over those who tried to take away our freedoms. Not freedom as its defined today by the courts but more like the freedoms promised us in the Declaration of Independence of 1776. We hadn't yet redefined and litigated to pieces the original intent of our Constitution. But be that as it is, what happened in Virginia the other day had nothing to do with freedom.
In the Pacific Ocean lies the Island of Guam. During the war I was born into, the Japanese took the island from us about the same time they bombed Pearl Harbor. In the fall of 1944 we took it back at a great loss of life. Those few Marines and soldiers that are still alive from that era have to cringe, to think it is being threatened again. But they fought for more than Guam. They also fought against the hatred and bigotry that we saw last weekend in Virginia.
Mike Holst
Crosslake
