again thank you for reviving , most of us are still here on this one , lets see how we all weigh in after all these years , i for one think FDR was no different than any president of any party might have been , reluctant to give in to the inevitable and cringing at the thought of what it might all mean , cost and what it might do to this country , that - i would offer to any who have and do hold the office , not giving quarter but simple understanding of the predicament they did not select ,
that said and in hind sight [which is generally 20-20 depending on your political persuasion] i think we should have acted more decisively in so many ways , but we did not live in those times , i do remember my parents , grandparents , and yes a couple great grandparents even , but i would be hardput to define them in today's terms , they thought differently than i do , they lived very different lives , they were much closer to the roots of the family than i could be ,
there were two sides to my family then - one german and one scot , one catholic and one methodist , both were fiercely holding to their roots but one trying desperately to be the americans they had become for near 100 years , in the end both prevailed but i lost a bit of my heritage as a result- the german side kept that from me , they also closeted the deafness of my great grandmother because it was considered a defect , i might have spoken a second language and i might have spoken on my hands as my mother and grandmother did - but i think i was deprived of that by society of that time ,
so to sum up our late to the party to join the war , i understand the reluctance , i understand the politics and regrets , i also understand that we were "IN" long before we joined , our lend lease program , the flyers in china and england , what i never quite got was our head-in-the-sand attitude in the pacific ,
yet maybe i just answered my own questions - in those days our attitudes toward orientals was no less than our attitudes toward blacks , all too much dismissive , never having actually respected their [both] contributions to what this country was and why that was so , as well as respect for what they might be as an adversary , guess we learned that the hard way ...
couple days to pearl harbor day , hope i see it remembered but not holding my breath , i keep that day and VJ day as well , its what took my father and brought him back , its what made me and was not forgotten in my household , there is so much to say but i think ill pass the baton
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