Today I'm thinking about The White Rose

Today I'm thinking about The White Rose, the German Resistance Movement to the Nazis during World War II.

Above, members of the White Rose, Munich 1942, (from left): Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst, confer to plot strategy against one of the most brutal regimes humanity has ever known. Okay, I have to confess, I didn't think of The White Rose just out of the blue - Wikipedia gave me an assist with its "On This Day..." section, which I read every day. Sixty six years ago today, following their capture by the Gestapo, members of The White Rose were found guilty of treason and guillotined.

I'm looking forward to reading some books about The White Rose, most notably Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, by Jud Newborn. I find their heroism and courage inspiring, especially considering the odds they faced and the consequences they surely knew they were facing if they were captured, which they were. Hitler and the Nazis had a zero-tolerance policy, to say the least, against any political opposition whatsoever. I cannot even begin to comprehend that sort of cost for opposition to one's government; despite what some would have us believe, especially during the George W. Bush administration, we had a duty to keep our mouths shut and "get behind our president while troops were in the field." What a crock.

And my feelings haven't changed now that Obama is president - questioning what our government is doing, including Obama, isn't only a right, it's a responsibility, and that hasn't changed with the new administration.

The people of The White Rose didn't just question, they put our lives on the line and paid the ultimate price. They should be remembered around the world for their courage in the face of horrifying consequences.

At right is the monument to the "Weiße Rose" in front of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where their memory is alive and well.

I shudder when I read what some of the leaders of The White Rose wrote in their leaflets - here are two short experts...

From The White Rose's first of six leaflets that the group distributed, guerrilla-style, to university students and other covert places:

Isn't it true that every honest German is ashamed of his government these days? Who among us can imagine the degree of shame that will come upon us and our children when the veil falls from our faces and the awful crimes that infinitely exceed any human measure are exposed to the light of day?

Pretty chilling words when read almost 70 years later.

Even more damning, from the group's second leaflet:

Since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way - the German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals... Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!

If only the German people and the rest of the world had listened.

D-Day, 64 years later

Yesterday was an anniversary of an invasion and slaughter I cannot even begin to comprehend. Yesterday, before dawn local time, hundreds of thousands of American, British and Canadian troops set sail from England to invade Nazi-occupied Europe in what to date is the biggest land invasion in history - D-Day. What awaited them was a hail of bullets, bombs and blood.

I did remember the invasion yesterday, but I became busy with other things and it slipped my mind to write about it. And that's exactly the point. Twentieth century history is very much a passion of mine, and I couldn't even remember to pay tribute properly. Millions of Americans were probably unaware of the significance of this date in our history, and our government ought to do something about that. I'm not even sure what - I'm sure businesses would be up in arms over another federal holiday, but I wouldn't be. Not for another day off or a tire sale, but for the proper respect that all World War II veterans deserve, and for a mandated remembrance of what hundreds of thousands of soldiers gave on that day and during the ensuing war in Europe - their bravery and their lives. (Incidentally, I feel the same way about December 7, the bombing of Pearl Harbor - we should have two holidays to honor both the European and Pacific theaters of humanity's costliest and bloodiest war.)

Above, American troops storm Omaha Beach at dawn on June 6. Often, literally before the landing craft's door opened for the troops to disembark, they were met with a bullets and bombs from high above the cliffs. Some troops even drowned from the weight of their ammo and packs.

Above, French fishermen look on at dead soldiers from the invasion. Visible in the skies above in the background are giant balloons that were launched to discourage Luftwaffe aircraft from attempting attacks on the vulnerable landing forces.

Above, American troops and French citizens celebrate their liberation in Cherbourg, France in front of city hall, June 28, 1944.

It cannot be repeated often enough, but each and every soldier who served to liberate tyranny during World War II is a national hero. We owe every one of them a debt that can never be repaid. Sadly, about 3,000 World War II veterans are passing a day in America. It won't be long before we can no longer honor them in person, but we should always honor them in spirit.

If you see, talk to, or e-mail a veteran this whole week, thank them. All that we have we owe to our veterans.

All photos © ROBERT CAPA © 2001 By Cornell Capa/Magnum Photos. Click Here if you would like to order a print of the photos above, or choose from a wide selection of historical photos from Magnum.

18k troops showing off Lady Liberty

I've gotten this picture too many times in the last month or so to ignore it, so I thought I'd share it. I'm always skeptical about e-mail forwards I receive, but occasionally, I get something that I want to be true, and this one of them. It certainly looks genuine, anyway.

According to the e-mail I received, the above picture was taken in 1918 of 18,000 men preparing for World War I at Camp Dodge in Iowa. As the e-mail succinctly said, it is "a gift from our grandfathers," but in my case, my great-grandfathers, or maybe even my great-great grandfathers. My grandfathers fought in World War II, but I certainly get the patriotic point.

Speaking of World War I, I just read the other day that there is exactly one veteran left in the United States from that war - the vet is something like 106 years old. I read the article with a tinge of sadness, because I know that our veterans from World War II are dying off at an average of 3,000 per day. If I live long enough, in a day not too far off in the future, there will be no vets left from WW II, either. I'm just happy that the vets from the most tragic war in human history are at long last getting their due for truly saving the world from tyranny.

I think another reason I look back on World War II with such admiration in recent years is because we had real, genuine leaders back then he thought out and planned for wars with foresight and intelligence, unlike the "leaders" we have in Washington now, who have no clue about when we should and shouldn't become involved in armed conflict. I also cringe to think about what awaits these vets when they finally do get home - sub-par health care from the Veteran's Administration, and indifferent politicians who are happy that these heroic vets helped them achieve their political goals. Meanwhile, the vets have to live their lives, many broken down mentally, physically, or both.

It's up to us to make sure that these morons in Washington take care of our returning heroes and that they are not discarded and forgotten, like old appliances. Because, mark my words, when the bill comes due for this war, many, many services are going to be axed to pay it off. Veterans' benefits had better not be one of them.

Don't miss The War tonight on PBS

Tonight at 8 p.m. on PBS, The War, a World War II documentary by Ken Burns, premieres, and I can't wait to see it. It's a 14-hour-long documentary, and by all early accounts, it's really going to be eye-opening.

One big reasons I'm looking forward to it is because of what it's NOT - a Hollywood production of World War II, with all of the dramatic special effects and sappy love stories (See Disney's POS Pearl Harbor for a shining example). Burns is literally reporting on the war through the eyes of the people who lived it - the most accurate kind of film making on war, in this author's humble opinion.

U.S. News & World Report and Newsweek have pretty good pieces on the upcoming series, so take a look if you get a chance. (U.S. News also has some video clips, too.)

In an interview with U.S. News, Burns offers up some great reasons for undertaking The War. Here are some excerpts:

On why his film is different from other WW II films:

The War is a kind of bottom-up, experimental look at the Second World War told not from the familiar perspectives of celebrity generals or politicians or an overweening interest in strategy or tactics or the distraction of weaponry and guns, but from so-called ordinary people. There are no experts in the film. If you weren't in the war or waiting anxiously for someone to come back, you're not in our film. The intimate view allows us to unwrap the Second World War from the bloodless gallant myth that has attended it since it ended.

On history being a myth:

How could [World War II] possibly be "the good war" when it was the worst war in history - killing nearly 60 million people? By the end of the film, we learn the great secret: that in shared sacrifice, we made ourselves richer. The whole war is smothered in myth that we sometimes forget the cost.

[...]

These were teenagers that were asked to become professional killers. They saw bad things, they did bad things, and that's the kind of war that we want people to understand. And when the [veterans] came back, no one was distinguishing if you were on the front lines or in the 10th shoreline division. So the people who saw the worst of it tended to shut up.

On revisiting WW II:

We're losing 1,000 WW II veterans a day in this country, our kids think we fought with the Germans against the Russians, it's horrible, and I couldn't abide. I'm in the memory business, and each time a person dies, it's a whole library of memories that leave.

On what his film says about memory:

War is the great lie of civilization; it is a collective forgetting. When people bear witness to it, they help resurrect it. Memory becomes the agent of our transformation, and we have an obligation to it. Like the still photograph, for me, remains the primary building block of visual communication, individual memory becomes the building block of our collective cohesiveness.

**

If The War is half as good as Burns' reasoning behind undertaking the project in the first place, it's going to be a very fine documentary indeed, and best of all, a very important contribution to history.

I've been an avid student of World War II for a long time, but when it comes to the war and the sacrifices of the generation who lived it and fought in it, I don't even know what I don't know. But, I'm always eager to learn more, and hopefully The War will be educational and informative to us all.

A water bridge, over a river!

This is 'way cool - one of the neatest things I've found on the Internet this year. It's a water bridge over the River Elbe near Berlin, in the city of Magdeberg. The bridge joins the former East and West Germany. For you history buffs, you'll remember that the Elbe is where Eisenhower halted the American advance into Germany at the end of the World War II. Little did anyone know at the time, but where the Americans halted their advance is roughly where the borders would be that formed two new countries for nearly 50 years - the two German states.

Anyway, this is quite a technological feat, and the photo is still hard to believe - I caught myself staring at it for about five minutes. A few more facts about this amazing bridge...

• It was built to observe reunification of the German state, which took place in 1990 (the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, but Germany was officially reunified in 1990)

• This ingenuity didn't come cheaply; the bridge was built at a cost of €500 million, which translates to over $1 billion American dollars (and rising since the dollar is doing so poorly these days).

• And finally, a little quiz in physics. Does the bridge have to withstand the weight of the water, or the water and the ships crossing it?

Think about it for a second...

Think you know the answer?...

(I'll confess that I didn't - physics was not my strongest subject in high school, that's for sure)...

Answer: The bridge only needed to be designed to withstand the weight of the water.

Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily the ship may be loaded. (When you read about ships, you always read about "displacement" and it's usually given in tons - that's the amount of water the ship displaces when it's in the water.)

What a sight this bridge is though - I'd love to see it in person some day.

What a day in history

Every once in a while, just by crazy coincidence, certain dates go down in history as watershed dates. Clearly, July 16 is one of those days, and I'm only talking about in the last 62 years.

Sixty-two years ago today, in the pre-dawn hours at the Trinity Site in New Mexico, the first nuclear bomb in history was detonated. (Above, one of the few color photographs that exists of the explosion.) It was the culmination of the Manhattan Project. Less than three weeks later, the first atomic bomb was dropped on a nation at Hiroshima, Japan, and the world has never been the same, nor will it ever be.

To me, the Trinity Test was the single biggest event of the 20th Century - it ended World War II, saving many lives, and the nuclear age was spawned. The second biggest event of the 20th Century was the Space Race, culminating with Apollo 11, which launched on this day in 1969 (Below).

When Neil Armstrong stepped off the ladder of Eagle four days later, becoming the first human to set foot on another world, humankind was changed forever. I wish I would have been alive and old enough to witness Apollo 11 and the subsequent moon landings. I'm thrilled that we are going back, and I hope I live to see the day we walk on Mars.

As I mentioned before, I believe the two biggest events of the 20th Century were World War II and man setting foot on the moon. It's also sort of funny that these two watershed events share another important date, coming up this Friday: July 20. That's when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and when the German resistance tried to kill Adolf Hitler. These are world-changing events for another reason - think for a moment if both of these events had turned out differently: Apollo 11 tragically fails, and the plot to kill Hitler succeeds; we've be living in possibly a very different world today.

Anyway, I'll write more about July 20 later in the week. Just thought I'd pause today and observe these two dramatic events.

63 years ago today: D-Day

In the world we live in today, it just seems so incomprehensible - virtually the entire continent of Europe under the thumb of Adolf Hitler, a dictator so brutal, he makes Saddam Hussein seem like Beaver Cleaver. (Above, the blue represents Nazi-occupied territory in Europe)

Sixty-three years ago today, Operation Overlord set out to change all of that. Its success was anything but assured. That too is something that is tough to comprehend today - during the whole time while I was growing up, whenever World War II was discussed in any of my classes, study always centered around our victory against Germany and Japan, but back then, leaders at the highest levels of our military weren't at all sure the plan would be a success. So much so, that General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, had a draft of speech written he would read in case Overlord failed.

Hundreds of years from now, billions of people will be grateful the Allies did not fail.

Above, troops approach Omaha Beach, into a firestorm and bloodbath I will never be able to comprehend, no matter how many books I read or movies I see.

Troops take to the beach. Facing a hail of gunfire from waiting German troops, as well as bombardment from German 88s, Allied troops were lambs to the slaughter in many instances. Survivors have told stories of how troops drowned from all weight of the equipment they had to carry, some were murdered in boats before they ever got off the boat, and others were cut down on the beach, where there was no cover whatsoever. It's amazing that the troops were able to get a foothold on the beach at all.

The price of victory to get a foothold on Europe was heavy, for both sides. The Allies lost 29,000 during D-Day operations, while the Germans lost 23,019 (Wikipedia), but the true number of dead will never be known. One thing's for sure - the water turned red from the slaughter; all for the cause of freedom.

It has been said so many times, but it will never be a cliché - we owe the World War II generation a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.

One more Memorial Day tribute

I just had to bring you one more Memorial Day tribute video, because this one is pretty good, plus it includes some war dead statistics that you may not have known. (I for one didn't know we lost that many in World War I and Korea.)

Desert Storm and the current Occupation of Iraq are the only two wars that I've lived through (full disclosure - I was born in 1971, so technically I lived through Vietnam, but not really). I'm a pretty enthusiastic student of history, and I look back with pride on how American society as a whole sacrificed during times of war during World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. That's not the case now. While I don't believe in the Occupation of Iraq at all and think it's highly immoral, I find it even more immoral that America isn't being asked to sacrifice anything, other than our futures because of the cost of this war.

When people dare to raise their voices in opposition, they are often shouted down, sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally, as being unpatriotic. To sell this war, this administration has resorted to slander, smear and fear, PR gimmicks and tactics and a slick marketing effort. And now, it's all collapsing, or is it? Bush continues to get his way, and his war funding.

When will it all end? Not soon enough, but according to Bush, Iraq may be another South Korea. From Reuters:

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush would like to see a U.S. role in Iraq ultimately similar to that in South Korea.

"The Korean model is one in which the United States provides a security presence, but you've had the development of a successful democracy in South Korea over a period of years, and, therefore, the United States is there as a force of stability," Snow told reporters.

He said U.S. bases in Iraq would not necessarily be permanent because they would be there at the invitation of the host government and "the person who has done the invitation has the right to withdraw the invitation."

"I think the point he's trying to make is that the situation in Iraq, and indeed, the larger war on terror, are things that are going to take a long time. But it is not always going to require an up-front combat presence," Snow said.

"The president has always said that ultimately you want to be handing primary responsibility off to the Iraqis," he said.

"You provide the so-called over-the-horizon support that is necessary from time to time to come to the assistance of Iraqis but you do not want the United States forever in the front."

Snowjob is back to his old self again. I wish I could say that's a good thing, because I hope he beats cancer.

But Iraq, like Korea? That's like comparing a bottle rocket to an ICBM.

Quickly now - how many American soldier deaths have there been in Korea since a cease-fire was declared in July, 1953? Without checking, I'd have to say zero, or very close to it. Certainly none from combat.

Anyone think that when the U.S. declares "victory" (which will be sometime next year, before the election, but more on that in a later post) that the senseless slaughter of U.S. troops will cease. If you think that, kindly go back to burying your head deep in the sand.

Hitler Youth selling VO5?

Some will call me a politically correct, liberal nut when they read what I think after seeing this ad, and I don't care.

This commercial is stupid, mindless and it's a short sighted attempt to sell VO5 products.

I never cease to be amazed when mindless ads like this one hit the airwaves. When I first saw this tonight, I rewound it on our DVR to watch it again because I thought my eyes had deceived me. They hadn't.

The unfortunate symbolism in this ad is so obvious - you'd have to have zero knowledge of World War II to miss it. The ad gave me these two thoughts:

First, which ad agency thought this was a good idea? Talk about narrow-minded stupidity.

Second, the company that manufactures and distributes VO5, Alberto-Culver, should know better than to green light an ad like this.

What's next - going to Hiroshima, Japan to release the next version of Duke Nukem, the popular video game?

How people quickly forget that the Holocaust occurred less than 70 years ago. That's NOT a long time. (The 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army on January 27th, 1945, is next week.)

Alberto-Culver should know better, and victims and descendants of Nazi oppression deserve better.

Think I'm reaching? Does anyone remember the Starbucks ad (left) that the company pulled not long after 9-11? Many felt it rang a little too close to 9-11, with the bug diving into the drinks. Look at the ad for yourself (I know, it's hard to see, but this was the best copy of it I could find.)

And honestly, the VO5 ad is a lot worse than the Starbucks ad.

Just because 9-11 was five years ago and the Holocaust was nearly 70 years ago doesn't make the VO5 ad any less outrageous.
I understand that imperfect people make these ads, but the VO5 ad is so blatantly stupid, it just shows a profound lack of common sense and sensitivity.

I'm curious to see if there will be any sort of controversy in the US from this ad. I found it on YouTube, and evidently, it appeared in the UK before it did here. Stay tuned on this one.

65 years ago today...

...the unthinkable happened - the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, propelling the United States into the biggest war the planet has ever seen, World War II. During the attack, the USS Arizona (Above) exploded, almost instantly killing 1,177 American soldiers.

The USS West Virginia burns (above). She was later repaired and served with honor in the war, earning five battle stars.

The attack marked the first time since the War of 1812 that American soil was attacked, and marks one of the most dastardly attacks in modern history and is unparalleled only by 9-11 in American history.

The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt (above, seated), who famously said, "December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy," asked Congress for a declaration of war against Japan and got it; on December 11 Italy and Germany also declared war on the United States, and we responded in kind. Thus, Pearl Harbor marked America's entry into the war, and most notably, the beginning of a tragically long list of American casualties.

Some 63 million people, or 3% of the world's population at the time, died in the two theaters of conflict during the war, including about 418,500 Americans, a number that boggles the mind, and quite frankly, is very hard to comprehend. For instance, in the Iraq War, the death toll for Americans is approaching 3,000 and America is starting to turn against the war. However, comparing World War II to any other way is, in most cases, an inaccurate oversimplification.

I'm not writing this to offer up a history lesson, though; I write about Pearl Harbor today to commemorate and remember veterans of World War II, and even more so for the true heroes - those Americans who died to defend the freedom of the United States and to liberate people suffering from tyranny around the world.

Actually, my words mean nothing and it's a billionth of a fraction of praise that all veterans deserve, specifically World War II veterans, but I wanted to at least acknowledge them today. I thought about them all day, as I do every December 7.

Sadly, the ranks of World War II veterans are shrinking every day by about 3,000. This year, many Pearl Harbor survivors have announced that they will make one final pilgrimage to the site of the attack. Here are a few of them I found on AP's Website. (All photos from AP as well)...

Everett Hyland, 83, of Honolulu, salutes in front a a display with his Pearl Harbor attack story on it at the USS Arizona Memorial Museum in Pearl Harbor. (AP Photo/Lucy Pemoni)

Floyd Patten, 52, seated center, foreground, joins seven of his sons on the deck of the USS Nevada in September 1941, before the December attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Family members are, from left in foreground: Bruce, Floyd and Marvin; in background are, from left: Bick, Ted, Allen, Gilbert and Ray. Six of the Iowa brothers were serving on the Nevada the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, and all lived to tell their stories. (AP Photo/The Des Moines Register, File)

Pearl Harbor survivor John A. Rauschkolb, 85, right, meets for the first time former Japanese Navy aviator Takeshi Maeda, 85, during the opening ceremony for Pearl Harbor's 65th anniversary symposium at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort last Sunday. Maeda's torpedo plane bombed the USS West Virginia while Rauschkolb was aboard during the Pearl Harbor Attack. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

Rauschkolb is a bigger man than I can ever hope to be. It takes a special man to shake hands with a former enemy who's nation undoubtedly caused the deaths of so many of his friends and fellow soldiers.

Charlie Ebel, 87, of Guilderland, N.Y., who was on the USS Curtiss, a sea plane tender, during the battle of Pearl Harbor, stands underneath a Japanese flag that flew on the battleship Nagato during the battle, at the unveiling of a display called "December 7, 1941: The Legacy of Pearl Harbor" on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006 at the New York State Capitol in Albany, N.Y. The USS Curtiss was credited with shooting down four Japanese airplanes and helping to sink a Japanese submarine. (AP Photo/Jim McKnight)

##

Anyway, I'm thankful and grateful for the men like those pictured above and for all of the men and women who helped us win World War II. Words cannot express what our nation owes you - it is indeed a debt that can never be repaid.

Worth a look: The Fog of War

The War in Iraq has been on my mind a lot today for some reason - I guess it's because it's all over the news. It got to me thinking about a stunningly insightful film I saw a few months ago - The Fog of War. Normally, I only bring you movie trailers about current or recently released films, but I decided to post this one because it relates so well to Iraq. It's an amazing film, centered on Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who served in that capacity under JFK's entire administration and nearly all of Lyndon Johnson's.

A brilliant man, McNamara's arrogance and hubris got the best of him, his president, his nation, and the lives of thousands of young American men who died in Vietnam, over a civil war that we had no business butting our noses into. But, under the guise of fighting the Cold War, that's precisely what we did.

Sound familiar? Just substitute Donald Rumsfeld for McNamara, Iraq for Vietnam, and War on Terror for Cold War, and you could shoot another documentary, with the cooperation of Rumsfeld. Of course, you have a better chance of President Bush resigning than getting Rumsfeld to admit a mistake.

Anyway, the film is absolutely apropos to contemporary thinking about American military might and our disastrous foray into Iraq, all in the name of fighting terror and spreading Democracy.

The film is excellent for other reasons, too. McNamara takes the viewer on a historic tour of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and of course, Vietnam. It's very instructive about the perils of glorifying war, which America has a monopoly on.



And I couldn't resist to bring you one more clip from the movie - it's McNamara's take on the nuclear bombing of Japan. I'm not sure I totally agree, but he's got a whole lot more expertise on the subject than I could ever dream of. Regardless of your point of view, it is thought provoking.

After watching it, still think war is all glory? I sure as hell hope not. Japan had it coming, no question, and in the end, I think dropping the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right decision, because Japan wasn't going to surrender unless it was absolutely forced to do so. However, the firebombing of Tokyo, killing 100,000 civilians? I'm not sold on that one. McNamara offers up a stunner at the end of this clip, saying Curtis LeMay thought American generals would have been prosecuted as war criminals had we lost the war. Wow.

My point in bringing this up now is that war should absolutely be the last resort, not the first one. World War II had to be fought. Iraq did not and does not.

Met a man from THE beach today

Just when I think I'm having an insanely busy day and my life is so hectic and stressful, something happens to me that makes me feel like a selfish, self-centered fool.

Today, I went to the Philadelphia Parking Authority to get a parking permit for my new car. (A Toyota Camry, pictures in a bit.) I'm standing in line and I hear a guy complaining in a good-natured way about the PPA giving him an undeserved $125 parking ticket. When the lady asks him for his license plate number, he tells her POW something (the plate above isn't his!) and she asks him, "Were you a prisoner of war?" and he replies, "You got it - you're looking at a veteran of Omaha Beach." This perked my ears up, since I enjoy reading and learning about World War II so much.

I saw he was ready to leave, so I hurried up with my paper work, and rode the elevator down with him. As we stepped into the elevator, it was just the two of us, and I extended my hand, telling him, "It's not every day I get to meet a veteran from Omaha Beach." He shook it and began telling me a few tidbits from his experiences during WWII.

"We had 225 soldiers when we stormed the beach," he said. "Four hours later, we had 23." Unbelievable and believable, all in the same sentence.

"I caught some shrapnel at the Siegfried Line, and when I woke up, I was in a German POW camp," he continued. "When I got out of the camp, I weighed 90 pounds." Wow.

I looked at him and said, "It may not mean much coming from me, but thanks." Typical of his generation, he said, "Well, we were just doing our jobs. I never asked for anything for 50 years, but when I got sick I went to the VA hospital and they paid for everything."

At a loss for words, I told him, "As well they should."

He then brought me over to his car and showed me his license plate like the one at top. I told him, "It's people like you that make America great."

He thanked me and we went our separate ways.

And the whole experience made me think of how insignificant and stupid my problems are, and I had a tooth drilled for two hours today, so it wasn't the best of days. But, you know what? I don't have problems. I have luck - luck that I was born into a country with men like the man I met today at the Philadelphia Parking Authority.