[Rhodes22-list] Omaha Beach - History and politics (anyone know what day it is?)

[brad haslett]

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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