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DEL.ICIO.USLatest battles in France
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve been thinking a lot about France, with its rioting/car fires/unrest, and wondering how safe I’d feel visiting Paris right now. Much as I want to say I’d go if I had a ticket in hand for next week, the reality is, I’d be very uneasy and probably would do a fair amount of checking about whether to go, and possibly postpone my plans.
With Veterans’ Day this week, I’ve also been thinking about the brave Americans who landed in Normandy on D-Day (my father among them), then fought across France and into Germany more than 60 years ago. The veterans who are still alive are in their 80s. They’d probably find my reluctance to consider Paris right now as silly, since many of them volunteered for certain — not theoretical — danger, My father had no interest in visiting France or Germany after the war, in stirring up difficult memories of his six years in the infantry, no interest in leaving his safe farm in Arkansas. I’ll always regret we didn’t make a trip to France together. I think he would have been so touched to see how thankful the people of Normandy are to Americans, even 60-plus years later, and it might have eased his mind.
Do you have tickets soon for Paris or elsewhere in France, and will you go? Did you ever make a war and remembrance journey with your father or mother to Europe? I’d like to hear your stories.
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