Saving Private… who?
It was the ravaged aftermath of WWII in europe - with its bombed out buildings haunting its cities - that still captivates my memory.
I was a child when I saw them after the war was over. I grew up in the U.S., but I was uncomfortable seeing movies that didn’t portray my understanding of the pain and anguish of war in its reality.
I was recently touched by a reference to Steven Spielberg’s movie, Saving Private Ryan, mentioned in the book, On Combat by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.
He reports that Spielberg’s movie is “an incredibly realistic depiction of the violence and horror of combat.”
But he makes an important point.
The story has U.S. Army Rangers going behind enemy lines where each man dies trying to save one young paratrooper: Private Ryan.
In Grossman’s mind: “that band of Rangers represents every American warrior who ever willingly gave his life to give us freedom, the lives and the liberty that we have today.”
Grossman explains: Those Rangers are the same as the soldiers who died in the Civil War… In the bloody tide at Normandy Beach and Iwo Jima. They are the police officers and firefighters who rushed up the steps of the World Trade Center on 9-11. “… and they represent the cop who died yesterday… alone and afraid … somewhere in America”.
Dying words...
At the end of the movie, when the last ranger lays dying, he looks up at the Private they saved… and his dying words are: “Earn it”.
“Earn it…”
And isn’t that what we all need to consider when we make decisions that protect these precious ideals they fought for us to have?
In seeing and hearing the accusations tossed around today I wonder: Who is the enemy?
They said that?
When researching public attitudes during the Revolutionary War, Civil War, etc. I find some very unpopular statements about those folks that today we think are heroes!
So consider this...
Are we the “Private Ryan’s” those Rangers struggled to save?
If so...What are we “protecting” for the future?
Just a thought…
Picture yourself in the position of the surviving paratrooper as he listens to the dying soldier who saved his life… and his admonition to protect these ideals for the future.
Can we do this…
Saving Private ___________ (Put your name here).
