The world is watching, but it also remembers.

It remembers, for instance, that American soldiers died to liberate France.  Sainte-Mère-Église remembers.

I once lived in Normandy, just across from the Isle of Jersey.  At Christmas, a green Normandy Christmas, we had as guest a gentleman who was among the American soldiers who survived D-Day.  We owned a car, so he guided us to all the sights.

Among the places we visited, one was extremely moving.  We saw a vast field filled with little white crosses.  There was a cross for each American soldier who died in or near Caen.  And there was no end of crosses.

Our guest’s life had been saved by a French family, at Sainte-Mère-Église.  He therefore visited with them.  Members of that family had risked their lives to save one American life, and the American whose life they saved had risked his life to save the French.  In the meantime, our friend had learned French.  In fact, this former soldier had become a scholar in the area of French seventeenth-century literature.

Europe will never forget the US soldiers who came to their rescue.  It will never forget Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the President who met with Churchill in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and also met with him at the Château Frontenac, in Quebec City, so they could discuss how to put an end to the sorry state of Europe, dominated by Hitler. Freedom is dear, so Franklin Delano Roosevelt answered Churchill’s plea for help.

When Americans are united by a “common purpose” (Lt Gen [ret] Russel L Honoré), they rise to excellence.  Therefore, there can be no doubt that Americans can have their nation if, once again, they are united by a “common purpose,” and if there is bread on every table now.

Turn you back on Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter and Arianna Huffington and the laughing-stock of the world.  Also turn your back on people who are self- serving and might deny the planet is melting in order to sell expensive sun-blockers. They are the enemy within.

Do not fear the debt and, particularly, do not fear investing in a stimulus package proposed by President Obama.  The US must remain operative.  Consider instead, that you have a remarkable leader, a leader you have elected, and rally behind his administration, not to mention America’s finest minds (your President listens), and return America to its former self.  In fact, make it better.