Dearest Readers,
New Orleans is a great city. I love the balconies, the floor-to-ceiling windows, the flagstone sidewalks. People look you in the eye and say, “How you doin?'” when passing by. I now understand what is meant by Southern hospitality.
Yesterday the proverbial wind took me to the WWII Museum. I probably wouldn’t have gone in if it weren’t for GITA but because I’m now doing research for a play about war and peace I found myself sitting in the 3 o’clock showing of Beyond All Boundaries a 4-D multi-media experience narrated by Tom Hanks.
Did you know that WWII took 65,000,000 lives? Sixty-five million. I still cannot grasp this number. I keep saying it over and over, like an answerable question that begs an answer anyway: “Sixty-five million? Did I hear that right? Did I?”
One of the pieces of info I didn’t really remember from my school-day lessons was that the US did not, in fact, want to go to war. The President at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said an uneqivocal “no” to joining the war effort. The attack on Pearl Harbour and Germany’s subsequent declaration of war on the US is what forced America to finally join the Allied Forces.
It was interesting to see the news reels depicting the US as a pacifist country. We think of them now as such war mongers. Perhaps WWII was the true catalyst for this change in their policy. America came out of WWII victorious (the film makes no real mention of the other Allied countries and their aid) and the victory made them an undeniable Super-Power.
The sidewalks outside the Museum are made of brick and upon each brick is carved the name of one of the Fallen. It felt strange to walk on top of their names, like walking through a graveyard, unsure of whether stepping on the Dead is akin to stepping on their honour. But I realized it was quite the opposite. My footprint on theirs. Mine from the sole of a shoe. Theirs from the Soul of a Life.
I’m a peacenik. I am. But if the Allies hadn’t fought the Axis what then? Is war sometimes necessary? Is the answer to this unanswerable question as clear as it seems?
Inspiring Message of the Day: As much as I would like things to be black and white the Truth is much more complex. I will continue to keep an open mind and give space to Life’s unanswerable questions.
