Page 39 - 200808 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August 2008

39 ruth hurts - we'd better face it quickly T Truth hurts - we'd better face it quickly 39 ruth hurts - but we'd T Truth hurts - but we'd better face it quickly better face it quickly By ROBERT W MORGAN By ROBERT W MORGAN patriotic duty. In example, Americans put aside eating more than his share ... their differences in WWII and worked together And imagine this: Teachers in schools to win that war. And we damned well did, too. actually started the day off with a Pledge of Then, after we had helped defeat them, we Allegiance, and with prayers for our country Perhaps you may agree; perhaps not. turned the other cheek to work with those same and our troops! And the kids addressed them as But, as many of us see it, President Bush did enemies and invested in them to make them Ma'am and Sir. And if you misbehaved you got indeed make a mistake in how he conducted our strong - and free from dictators. paddled first at school and again when you got war on terrorism. But that mistake was to In case you don't know (shame on us home. believe this nation is the same one his father and again - do you think your freedoms came free?), Back then, no newspaper would have mine and perhaps yours fought for in WWI, those nations were our present allies, Germany dared point out certain weak spots in our cities World War II, and Korea. and Japan. where bombs could be set off to cause the It's true; it is not the same. It's been After the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor, maximum damage. No newspaper would have gutted by Liberals who earned their freedoms at everyone from every strata of society, from dared complain about what we were doing to the expense of others. young to old pitched in. Kids everywhere pulled catch spies. Take a moment to reflect on this point of little wagons around to gather scrap metal for A newspaper would have been shut fact. World War II began for us shortly after we the war effort. Grammar school students saved down overnight had it complained that German had come out of a vicious depression. The their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to or Japanese soldiers were being 'tortured' or country had earned its steel and grit by the help the effort. (I used my .10 cents a week subjected to interrogation by a woman, or being hardships of that depression, but they still allowance to buy my stamps. No lollipops or scared by a dog or did not have air conditioning believed fervently in this country. They knew ice cream for me during those years. They in their cells. After all, we all knew about the that the people had elected their leaders, so it weren't important; stamps were. And I dutifully Japanese literally slaughtering American, was the people's duty to back those leaders. The crushed every can I could find - after rinsing it Chinese and Filipino prisoners of war or turning Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was our out - and picked up random nails and bottle caps them into slave laborers. We knew about Jap man of the hour, and he did an admirable job. for the scrap heap.) soldiers throwing babies into the air to spear Therefore, when that war broke out, our Men who were too old or medically 4F them with they bayonets just for fun. If you people came together, rallied behind, and stuck often lied about their age or condition to try doubt me, read The Rape of Nanking or books with our leaders. It did not matter who you their best to join the military. Women doubled about the Bataan Death March. Look at the voted for or against or whether the war was their work to keep things going at home; Rosy photos the Japanese took as they beheaded our going badly or not. And war then was just as the Riveter was real. Harsh rationing of Army officers who had surrendered at distasteful and the anguish over it was just as everything from gasoline to soap, to butter was Corrigador. How many Americans know that great then as it is today. imposed, yet there was very little complaining. Jap soldiers doused hundreds of their prisoners I know this first-hand. I was born in (In fact, I had never tasted butter or saw a steak of war with gasoline and burned them alive 1935. I remember all too well the day the Japs until I was 12 or more. We had "oleo" that was rather than repatriate them to our army that was bombed Pearl Harbor. Every eligible male in lard-white until you mixed it by hand to make it closing in on their POW camps? And yes, yes, our family volunteered immediately; we had turned yellow. Tasted like soap. I had my toast I address the modern Japanese as Japanese and one of those small flags hanging in our window dry ...) count them as an ally, but that courtesy does not that displayed one star for each person who You never heard prominent people on apply to those specific ancestors because they served. We had five stars. I also had three the radio belittling the President. Interestingly don't deserve it. Go ahead, take a look at all our female cousins who joined, one each to the enough in those days there were no fat-cat archived newspapers from those years of horror Marines, the Navy and the Army Nurse Corps. actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and to see that same term was used by all the Free She was at the Battle of the Bulge. If you don't fawn over dictators of hostile countries and World. I happened to have known two survivors know about that battle, shame on you and complain to them about our President. Instead, of Bataan. Guess what they called their captors shame on our schools for allowing history to be they made films that taught honor and courage, - of course, we all know that combat vets are taught by memorizing a few dates. Damn it, and that mothers and women in general were to seldom held to be "politically correct" by the history was made by flesh and blood people just be respected; after all, they were the givers of Chicken Little's of our far-left. like you and me and what they did, right or life to each and every one of us and that made There were a lot of things different back wrong, shaped the world we live in. It deserves them special. Instead, Hollywood made upbeat then. We were not subjected to a constant to be taught that way so our kids know that in films and entertained our troops to help the bombardment of pornography, perversion and fact every act they commit both good and bad troops' morale. And a bunch of those actors promiscuity in movies or on the radio. We did can effect the world to come. enlisted and the actresses swarmed to entertain not have legions of crack heads, dope pushers Properly taught, our kids and their and feed our troops at the USO. God bless 'em and armed gangs roaming our streets, either. parents would know that there were more all! And the Michael Moore's of this world No, President Bush did not make a casualties in one day in WWII than we have had would have been tarred, feathered, and his lips mistake in his handling of terrorism. in the entire Iraq war. But people in this nation would have been sewn shut so he would stop stuck with the President because it was their (Continued on Page 40)