No Comparison Between Those Who Sacrificed At Normandy and Illegals Rioting In L.A. by Robert Socha

I had the opportunity to visit the beaches of Normandy this week and the American cemetery located there. Over 9,000 men and a few women rest there, having given that last full measure of devotion during the 100 days of the Normandy campaign that began just over four score and one year ago. Walking along the beaches and bunkers and among the crosses and stars of the soldiers’ final resting place caused much reflection and quite a few tears.

The seas were calm and the temperature comfortable as I walked along the beach to the water’s edge and stared at the horizon, wondering at the resolve. In one striking moment, I witnessed two men of what appeared to be Indian nationality playing frisbee on Omaha Beach. The image of these men enjoying the freedom to laugh and play on that hallowed beach reminded me of the precious and valuable liberty we enjoy. Those blood-soaked beaches refreshed the tree of liberty and allowed those men recreation and my reflection.

Imagine, for a moment, how different the world would be if the Allies had failed their attempt to defeat the Third Reich. The despotic rule of a people who thought themselves higher than they ought would have caused a continent-wide apartheid state whose power and authority would cast an uglier shadow on human history than the stain of WWII, and the millions who have lived from then to now would be yearning to be free. I thank God above for His providential movement to watch over and provide a way of escape, terrible as it was.

Fast-forward to the riots in Los Angeles. This episode of domestic unrest was not born in the epic struggle for liberty; it is rooted in lies and rewritten history. Antonio López de Santa Anna was a terrible totalitarian dictator whose mismanaged campaigns in the mid-1800s lost him the vast swath of the southwestern United States. The men who fled Mexico’s present-day economic stagnation to find work and provision for their families in the north, are not fighting an occupying force and are not freedom fighters. Their abuse of our generosity deserves accountability for their crimes.

Impeding traffic, chaotically damaging private and public property, and disturbing the peace infringe on the rights of others living and working in that space. Waving another nation’s flag while doing so suggests violent insurrection. The men who sacrificed their futures on those beaches in France are not the same. The former deserves condemnation and justice, the latter the highest praise.

God bless those men and their families who pledged their lives for the millions yet unborn.