D-Day.....A Follow-up

The Old Man needs your assistance. As you are probably aware, D-Day and Bedford are forever linked. To refresh, Bedford lost more men per capita in the invasion of Normandy at Omaha Beach than any other municipality in the United States. As such, Congress agreed that the National D-Day Memorial should be located there. A private, non-government foundation was created to develop and manage the Memorial. As such, it receives very little if any government funding, and operates primarily from admissions revenue and gift shop purchases. While there is a paid staff, most are volunteers.

A "double whammy" of sorts has hit the Memorial. Donations and contributions have decreased substantially due mostly to the shrinking of the brave veterans, (we're losing around 1000 per day of World War II vets) and the general decline of the economy. Considering these financial shortfalls, there exists the possibility that the Memorial may have to close. A horrible tragedy.

Virginia legislators have introduced a bill in Congress to place the Memorial under the wing and management of the National Park Service; a move that, hopefully, would insure its survival. I have mixed emotions about this, considering some of the screwy moves government has been known to make, but these are desperate times for the Memorial.

Your assistance I mentioned? Perhaps a letter to your Congressman or Senator encouraging a positive vote on this idea at the proper time; maybe encouragement to the company you work for for donations, or even a personal contribution if you feel so led; all of these in the total could make a difference.

The very fact that I can sit in my comfortable home and write this without fear of recrimination of any type is testimony to the debt we owe the brave men who were willing to give all to insure our freedom.

All who attend the Memorial come away deeply touched. I took a group from our church up last fall and one of the members stood apart from the group and silently absorbed the scene. He is a combat veteran of Vietnam and he said later that he could look at the statues of soldiers in a desperate battle for their very lives and he "knew exactly how they felt".

I promised very few "soap boxes", so that's it for this session. Help however you feel you can.

Here's the link to the National D-Day Memorial....pay it a visit when you have the time.

http://www.dday.org