At a crossroads
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
Emily Campbell on Omaha Beach holding a photo of her dad who landed on the same beach.
I did it! I finally did it! For those of you who have been following my column for a while you know that my last BIG bucket list item was to go to Normandy and the surrounding areas to see where our troops landed, fought and helped win World War II.
On June 6, 2023, I booked a “Beaches of Normandy” bus tour to go alone, but within two weeks I had my travel buddy – Emily Campbell. We left on September 4, returned on September 17, and had the experience of a lifetime!
It turned out that Emily’s dad had landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day+1 and went on to the Battle of the Bulge and beyond. She was able to stand on Omaha Beach with his picture, and it was an amazing moment.
We spent time in Paris, saw all five of the landing beaches of D-Day, went to St. Mere-Eglise – the first town liberated (and a well known scene from the movie “The Longest Day”), went to two of the American cemeteries, and to Bastogne where the Battle of the Bulge was fought and were able to stand in the fox holes still left in the Ardennes Forest. We also went to Luxembourg and Munich and some great museums along the entire trip.
Our last visit was supposed to be at the Eagles Next – Hitler’s castle on the mountain. Unfortunately, it had snowed there and the road was closed so our tour director took us to a salt mine nearby. And it was great!
The whole experience was outstanding! We met some great people on the tour and made some lasting friends. The tour director was wonderful, and the local guides were walking encyclopedias of the areas they took us to. We learned some of the “real truth” that we had seen in movies where some artistic license had changed the actual actions.
We were amazed at some of the European practices compared to ours – square toilets and some with no seats, impossible to find a good cup of coffee and the fact that people in Luxembourg are REQUIRED to vote and that all German children are REQUIRED to go to a concentration camp before they can graduate.
I’ll leave it here that I really was amazed at how easy it was to travel on a bus tour with everything included except a few meals and souvenirs. I’m now ready to book another trip with the same company to Berlin to see the history there. I’m hoping Emily and the Yankee guys we met will be interested in joining me.
It was hard to keep up with the news while we were gone, but we did the best we could. We missed the debate, were outraged at the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, and other events we heard some about. Most of the people we met on the tour were conservatives and Trump supporters – even the people from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Oklahoma. I guess this was because these people were patriots based on the theme of the tour. There were many conversations about the direction our country was taking while we were witnessing the destruction caused by World War II.
I’m still struggling to catch up on news, and I’m really concerned about the number of people who are planning to vote for Kamala Harris when she has yet to have a formal press conference, share exactly what her policies will be (other than copying some from Trump) and is only meeting with left-leaning groups and celebrities. She has changed her position on almost everything, and the main reason people are saying they are voting for her is a return to national legal abortions, she’s a woman, she’s Black (questionable), or that they hate Trump and Jews.
And now as we watch more aggressive moves in the Middle East we may be looking at what could become World War III. And the thought that we would be faced with this while under the leadership of the Democratic Party scares me to death. Yes, our military is standing by in the area, and some more troops are being sent, but would this administration or a Harris/Walz administration stand with our allies if a war broke out?
Israel has every right to go after these groups who have been attacking them for years. It is time to wipe out the extremists and return leadership to the people of those countries. And us just saying “Don’t” and “No” to these people is not acceptable. Action must be taken even if it is only embargoes, stopping their cash flows and not sending our tax money and supplies to Hamas and Iran.
All these global fights that we may end up being involved with are major reasons to really think hard on how we vote in November. Do we want someone who will just talk, or do we want someone who will take action to protect us and our allies? Do we want someone who loves to laugh and is joyful, or someone who will be serious and decisive? We are at a crossroads, and the future is at stake.
Pray with all your might and ask God to please save our country.