You can look at almost everyday on the calender and come up with meaningful things that happened in our history. Life changing things….big things…little things….big things that seemed little…little things that seemed big. Looking at todays calender those things range from small to humongous. Everything from the first drive-in theater in the US opening on this date in Camden NJ in 1933…to a hundred years earlier when Andrew Jackson being the first president to ride in a railroad car in 1833….from the Ed Sullivan Show airing for the last time in 1971 and one year later David Bowie releases Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. But two items on todays calender stand out as events that changed history as we know it. Most of you would guess that I'm talking about the Normandy Invasion or D-Day. If youve read about this momentous day in 1944 you know that Commander Dwight Eisenhower had two statements ready to give….one announcing success and another announcing failure…and for awhile it looked like the second speech might be the one given. The courage of those men who left the landing crafts on those beaches knowing that in a few seconds many of them would be dead is astounding. Obviously the world would be unrecognizable today if the invasion of Fortress Europe had failed……….the second item on the calender is tragic and sad and also changed our future in ways that still reverberate. Bobby Kennedy died on this date in 1968 after being shot in Los Angeles the day before. Kennedy had just won the California primary and you could certainly argue that he would have been the Democratic nominee for President in 68 and probably beaten Richard Nixon. How many American boys would still be alive if that had happened? How different the history of the world would have been for the last 50 years? We like to celebrate or remember history in comfortable slices…centuries, decades or in the case of 50 years ago…one year that was so terrible it makes even our current intolerable situation pale in comparison. Two June 6ths in history…two swings of the pendulum…and here we are. What would Dwight Eisenhower, Bobby Kennedy, or the courageous soldiers who stormed the beaches to vanquish Nazism say if they could see where we are now? I think you know, in your heart, the answer to that question.
I doubt that Hollywood could ever really show what happened on those French beaches 74 years ago but Spielberg probably came closest with Saving Private Ryan
And for those too young to remember that fateful day in 1968….
On a happier note for me…Happy Birthday to my oldest son Wade who turns the big 3-0 today. He's always been a World War 2 buff, probably from the fact that he was born on such an historical day.
As we try and limit the amount of plastic that ends up in our landfills and our oceans and lakes…kudos to the Milwaukee Bucks as the will not using plastic straws at their new arena. The stadium will also be using food packaging that can be composted as part of it's commitment to being envrionmentally friendly and its sustainability program.
Congrats to Mosinee and Athens…the local teams who earned trips to the WIAA State Baseball championships yesterday.
Quotes Of The Day
“”Donald Trump is meaningless to this whole process, he's meaningless to the city and the city's success. He tries at every chance he gets to tear cities down, and eventually he will be gone.”-Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney
“Disinviting them from the White House only proves that our president is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend.”-Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney
“You might remember the stunning video of the teenager speaking to the Iowa State Legislature about his two moms in 2011, where Republicans were trying to ban same-sex marriage. Marriage equality won. And tonight, 27 year old Zach Wahls won his primary for the Iowa State Senate.”-Ben Wikler
“Apparently they don't teach the words to “God Bless America” at Studio 54.”-Amy Siskind
“Law school is to Giuliani as Wharton is to Trump.”-Norman Ornstein
“Just finished Jon Meacham's “The Soul Of America”. Good reminder that facts and the essential goodness of the American people always triumph. It can take awhile, but decency and the rule of law inevitably win over demagogues and liars. So long as we all stand up and speak out.”-James Comey
“My fathers life became exponentially worse when he decided to run for president.”-Eric Trump
“Ours too! Finally something in common.”-Christy Teigen
“Quite a number of people are comparing Trump's claim of a right to self-pardon to George III. In fact, Trump is asserting a much, much greater power thanh George III ever imagined– a power for which Charles I lost his head and James II lost his throne.”-David Frum
Songs Of The Day
