Speech #6 – Vocal Variety
What Price Freedom?
225 Rangers landed in the mist of dawn, immersed in the muffled sound of
bullets raining down resting deep into the sands around their feet, echoed by
the sound of fellow soldiers falling to their knees.
The Allies knew their
mission -- to take out the enemy guns.
These men knew the war hinged on their success. Looking up at the enemy perched on the chalk
cliffs above, the Rangers shot rocket-propelled hooks attached to ropes and
ladders over the edge, and started to climb.
The enemy dropped grenades and cut their ropes. When one Ranger fell, another would take his
place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger
would grab another and begin his climb again.
They ascended -- shot back -- and held their footing. The fear, exhaustion,
and determination on the faces of these soldiers hinted at the terrors they
have already endured. Overcoming
these tremendous odds -- one - by - one -- they advanced, and drove off the
enemy. Victory was within reach.
225 arrived and after two
days of fighting only 90 could still bear arms.
The 2nd Ranger Battalion experienced the worst ordeal of the
Operation. Almost all the senior
officers had been killed or wounded. Dazed,
wounded, disorganized, the survivors regrouped and pressed on. It took the initiative of junior and
non-commissioned officers, along with ordinary privates, to turn the tide. One of every two Rangers was killed. The Americans suffered a total of 2,400
casualties in one day. These were the
heroes who helped end a war.
"'This is D-Day,' the BBC announced at 12 o'clock. 'This is
the day.' The invasion has begun!... Is this really the beginning of the
long-awaited liberation? The liberation
we've all talked so much about, which still seems too good, too much of a fairy
tale ever to come true?... the best part of the invasion is that I have the
feeling that friends are on the way. Those
terrible Germans have oppressed and threatened us for so long that the thought
of friends and salvation means everything to us!" -- Anne Frank, diary
entry, June 6, 1944
If
these men had cowered behind the seawall and said “This war isn’t about me, I’m
staying here, I’m not going to risk my life,” the landing would have failed at
I am humbled by the
realization of how much so many gave to the cause of freedom and to their fellow
man. I have a deep regard for the
citizen soldier, for the men and women who went halfway around then world, not
to conquer but to liberate. When our
forces marched into
This generation understood
that
These men -- just barely men -- just embarking on
manhood with grand dreams of what lies before them. Dreams of a free world. A world where his children and his children’s children can live in
freedom. Some paid an ultimate price,
but a price they were willing to pay, for that freedom.
But are we truly free
today? How can we be free if we don’t
know what freedom is? How can we be free
if we don’t know the history of freedom?
The price paid for that freedom? Most graduating high school seniors -- some
the very age as those brave soldiers -- don't know why we have a Bill of
Rights. They haven't a clue to why
slaves were counted in the Constitution as only three-fifths of a person. And they don’t know why these brave men of
Since this
generation is very close to voting age or already have reached it one can only
feel alarm that they know so little about their nation's history and express so
little capacity to reflect on its meaning.
This is alarming for
everyone who cares about the future of our democracy. Freedom doesn't work by itself. It depends on active, informed citizens. And that's who these kids are: our future
citizens.
How do we communicate this responsibility
to kids? When our kids feel something is
interesting and relevant to their lives, they are open and ready to learn. The stories behind World War II are
interesting and relevant, and it’s our job to present them that way. It is our responsibility to first educate
ourselves on the history of freedom and then take the action of teaching these stories
to our children. Our founding fathers
understood that our system of democratic government came with no guarantees. Not then, not in 1944, and not today. They knew that the new republic would require
active, informed citizens to preserve, protect, and defend it.
As President Reagan reminded
us on the 40th anniversary of D-Day: “Strengthened by their courage,
heartened by their valor, and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand
for the ideals for which they lived and died.
Let us make a vow to our fallen
soldiers. Let us show them by our
actions we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them that these things
are worth dying for. And by our actions
teach this new generation of citizens the price paid for freedom.