The past couple weeks have been tough on all of us. We all came together after the shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa… briefly.
We’ve now returned to politics, where Texas’ senior Senator is working with another Republican and two Democrats on a potential bill that may potentially change gun laws, hypothetically. The organization, March for Our Lives, has relaunched its push for legislation, citing stats showing we now average more than one mass shooting per day.
But #ScaiaBlog is about hope. Who can give us hope? The Greatest Generation.
One of my hobbies is reminding everyone how much better people who fought in World War II are than the rest of us.
This weekend marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway [which took place on an atoll, in case you’re wondering about the title]. The Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth held a ceremony they talked about the battle as a turning point in the Pacific, letting the U.S. move from a defensive posture to an “insurmountable offensive posture.”
I wandered up to shove my microphone in the face of the JRB’s 2021 sailor of the year afterward. MA1 Roberto Villareal says it’s important to remember what the Navy accomplished in its first substantial test as a modern organization.
One of the vets there was Air Force Staff Sergeant Bill McIntyre, now 101 years old. He lives in Tulsa now, but he was in Washington D.C. when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
He says he’s glad when teachers and principals ask him to talk to schools, saying it’s important to remember that history. He says he’d even make sure pilots had something valuable in case they got shot down and were taken prisoner.
McIntyre wasn’t at Midway; he was stationed in Northern Africa and was in Rome, Italy on DDay.
A man who liberated a doggone national capital also explained he doesn’t completely understand why we argue so much now. This is a perspective you don’t hear much about. He suggests if the Americans who died at DDay [or Midway, too, I suspect] were here now, they’d find we might still have some problems, but life here is solid.
McIntyre says everybody understood the need to sacrifice during World War II.
Villareal, the current sailor, says 307 Americans died at Midway, but all branches of the military worked together to win the battle.
He was glad to meet a World War II veteran, saying they can provide a model for how we can still come together when we need to.
The next time you consider joining an argument about guns or pronouns on Facebook … or the next time you decide to exercise your right to load a gun during a Congressional hearing … perhaps consider a World War II vet’s encouragement to cool out. He may have a more measured perspective.
