Posted on 06/14/2004 3:19:19 PM PDT by Theodore R.
So Help Us God John LeBoutillier Tuesday, June 15, 2004
On Dec. 8, 1941 – the day after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor – President Franklin D. Roosevelt made his "Day of Infamy" speech to the Congress to declare war on Japan and Germany.
The penultimate sentence of this historic speech was: "With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God."
Two weeks ago this nation celebrated the long-overdue opening in Washington of the World War II Memorial. Over 200,000 WWII vets journeyed to D.C. to receive their due for what they have done to save this nation. The president spoke; former presidents Bush and Clinton attended. It was – to put it mildly – a big deal.
The Memorial is divided in half: One side is the European Conflict and the other is dedicated to the Pacific Conflict.
The designers of the WWII Memorial decided to inscribe some of the war’s memorable quotations and speeches into the granite. Obviously, FDR’s "Day of Infamy" speech is the centerpiece of the Pacific side of the Memorial because it was precipitated by the Pearl Harbor attack.
You can imagine the shock when the first of the public saw this speech – and realized something was amiss!
A well-educated patriotic woman and her husband stood there and reverently read through the speech. Here – from an e-mail – is what happened:
"On the Pacific side of the memorial, a group gathered to read the words President Roosevelt used to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor: 'Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked.'
"One woman read the words aloud: 'With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph.'
"But as she read, she was suddenly angry.
"'Wait a minute,' she said. 'They left out the end of the quote. They left out the most important part. Roosevelt said "so help us God."'
"'You're probably right,' her husband said. 'We're not supposed to say things like that now.'
"'I know I'm right,' she insisted. 'I remember the speech.' The two shook their heads sadly and walked away.
"Listening to their conversation, I thought to myself, 'Well, it has been 50 years. She's probably forgotten.'
"But she was right.
"I went home and pulled out the book my book club is reading. It's 'Flags of Our Fathers' by James Bradley. It's all about Iwo Jima. I haven't gotten too far in the book. It's tough to read because it's a graphic description of the battles in the Pacific.
"But right there it was on page 58. Roosevelt's speech to the nation. It ends 'so help us God.'
"The people who edited out that part of the speech when they engraved it on the memorial could have fooled me. I was born after the war. But they couldn't fool the people who were there. Roosevelt's words are engraved on their hearts."
So, what happened?
The designers and builders of the World War II Memorial succumbed to Political Correctness!
What a disgrace this is!
To edit out FDR’s words from a historic speech is tantamount to what tyrants and autocrats do: Change and omit events in their recountings of history to suit themselves. The Soviets and Saddam are recent examples of brutal leaders ‘altering’ history to suit themselves.
Where does General PX Kelly and the other folks who built and now run this Memorial get off with applying today’s anti-God, left-wing PC agenda to the facts of WWII?
(Please note that these same PC sycophants removed FDR’s trademark cigarette holder, too. Guess smoking, too, is so ‘out’ these days that we cannot show the president as he truly was.)
Pressure needs to be applied on those who run the Memorial - including Sen. Bob Dole - to correct these deliberate omissions as soon as possible. To fail to do so makes a sham of the entire Memorial.
Political Correctness is bad enough, but we do not now need it literally changing history.
John LeBoutillier, a former U.S. congressman, is an author and columnist. E-mail John Leboutillier.
What a disgrace this is!"
Political Correctness, and all speech codes, are a disgrace, and an afront to our system of government. They are un-American and immoral. Thanks, Donna Shalala.
As for fixing the memorial, I would suggest adding three periods and an asterisk at the end of the currently engraved quote (...*). At the bottom: (* The Words "So Help Us God" Have Been Censored from this Memorial in a Misguided Interpretation of the United States Constitution by Members and Supporters of the democrat party.)
We leave God out of our history at our own peril.
Put it in, or tear it down.
I think this has been debunked on snopes.com. The sentence on the memorial did not contain a reference to God although another part of the speech referenced those words. There was a post last weekend on this. This was an excerpt from a long speech FDR made.
The 'Day of Infamy' speech that began the war did indeed contain the line:
With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.
There may have been another speech without the "so help me" part, but it never got very far in history.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.