After a heartfelt Independence Day where we all came together to celebrate our nation and all that unites us, we’ve now returned to arguing with strangers online about politics.
But what if, and hear me out, what if instead of turning this country into an elaborate comments section, we celebrated simply having the ability to argue with each other about politics!? After all, a lot of people have lost that ability. Even after that post earlier this week, we still don’t feel pride in our country.
Modern Philosopher Norm MacDonald pointed this out in explaining one country has a knack for starting world wars:
I talked to a World War II vet this week. Bill McIntyre turns 105 later this month.
He explains he was living in Washington in 1941, walked out of a movie theater one day and found out Pearl Harbor had been attacked.
An aside: An associate refers to an unpleasant surprise as being “Pearl Harbored.” Feel free to use that one.
In that clip, McIntyre says he had no fear being in Washington that night, explaining it took a year for the government to find him. But then he was drafted and stuck on a boat for Africa.
“What was it like zigzagging around to avoid German uboats?” a reporter asks.
“Pretty exciting,” McIntyre replied.
That led to us discussing the differences among generations. He was tossed around in the water, chased by uboats and only then did he get to the war. Those Kids Today would, when the seas get rough, take duckface selfies and then call their parents to rescue them.
His generation had to solve problems quickly to survive. For instance, after a night on the town in Morocco, McIntyre decided to stop by the French Foreign Legion. Slight hiccup: the rest of his unit went back to their base without him, so he had no idea how to get back.
Did McIntyre panic? No. He solved the problem.
He hopped on a freight train. The train wasn’t going to his base, mind you, but it was going near his base.
McIntyre wasn’t at Normandy for DDay. He was coming from the other side and was part of the liberation of Rome. In this clip, he walks us through how he’d sleep in his clothes because he never knew when the Germans would have a bombing run.
McIntyre earned the Bronze Star. He was even blessed by the pope.
He’s since been to Normandy twice. In that picture his grandson sent me, he’s signing Donna Reed right on her face because there wasn’t room anywhere else.
He didn’t fight in the war for himself. When I talk to World War II vets, they frequently say any award like the Bronze Star isn’t for them. It’s for their friends who never made it home.
“You’ve got to love your country,” McIntyre says. “That’s what I did.”
Another modern philosopher, Jimmy James, sums it up, explaining the Declaration of Independence was just a commercial… an ad for liberty so powerfully written it ranks right up there with “Where’s the beef?”
