Are We Worthy of Their Sacrifice?

If the radical left succeeds in turning the United States into an authoritarian regime, Americans will have nowhere else to escape. This country is it!

The Normandy American Cemetery

It was an emotionally charged week: Tuesday, June 4th, marked the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre; Wednesday, June 5th, marked the 20th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s passing; and Thursday, June 6th, marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day. These are dates like “no others” in history, and they mark significant events that shaped history. This week, many of us were reminded that the liberty we enjoy today resulted from tremendous previous generations’ sacrifices. I couldn’t stop asking myself: are we worthy of their sacrifice?

Eighty years ago, about 160,000 Allied troops, including 73,000 from the United States, crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy. For the Nazis, D-Day was the beginning of their doomed end. For the Allies, D-Day was the beginning of liberation and victory. But victory came at a high cost.

At the Normandy American Cemetery, 9,387 American soldiers were laid to rest, and some of them were brothers. Another 1,557 names were inscribed On the Walls of the Missing. Many of them were young, and some of them just graduated from high school. In President Reagan’s words, some were “hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life” before them. Yet, they risked everything, including paying the ultimate price with their lives. Why did they do it? No one answered this question better than Reagan, a champion of freedom himself.  

In his speech to commemorate the 40^TH anniversary of D-Day, President Reagan answered the “why” question with three points:

·        “The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next.

·        You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

·        Their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause.”

In summary, why did those young Allies troops, those boys and men, risk all for other people’s freedom and the liberation of different continents from tyranny? “It was faith and belief; loyalty and love” (Reagan).