How was your Monday?
Normal day, maybe? Quick lunch between meetings, possibly?
It shouldn't have been just a normal workday.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 4/15/14. Staff Mugs
Morning fog light covers the tombs prior to the opening of the Colleville American military cemetery, in Colleville sur Mer, western France, Monday June 6, 2016, on the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landing. D-Day marked the start of a Europe invasion, as many thousands of Allied troops began landing on the beaches of Normandy in northern France in 1944 at the start of a major offensive against the Nazi German forces, an offensive which cost the lives of many thousands.
U.S. representatives of WWII veterans associations pay their respects as they listen to the U.S. national anthem prior to lay wreaths on the memorial in the Colleville American military cemetery, in Colleville sur Mer, western France, Monday June 6, 2016, on the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landing. D-Day marked the start of a Europe invasion, as many thousands of Allied troops began landing on the beaches of Normandy in northern France in 1944 at the start of a major offensive against the Nazi German forces, an offensive which cost the lives of many thousands.Monday was D-Day, and it is long past time that the sacrifice of more than 150,000 of our bravest in World War II should be designated as a holiday.
It was the ultimate act of sacrifice of a generation against a global threat; the supreme act of courage in the face of certain danger and possible death.
Today, we spend far too much time squabbling about who uses which bathroom, why Donald Trump chalk markings are scary and every other "problem" that gets overblown in modern America.
Heck, we spent most of the weekend hailing the personal sacrifices Muhammad Ali made by not serving his country, and Monday passed with little more than a casual mention of D-Day on social media.
Yes, our Sen. Bob Corker met with some World War II veterans and with the American Jewish Committee, but there was little fanfare compared to the deeds done 72 years ago.
Image the miles riding in hard waves toward an unknown end. Picture the doors dropping on the troop carriers as the bloody water and the body-filled beaches shocked the senses.
"Everywhere I looked I saw dead and wounded," Bernard Friedenberg, a staff sergeant who stormed Omaha Beach, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I could hear men hollering 'medic' from every direction."
How many of us celebrate Cinco de Mayo or last Friday's National Doughnut Day, for Pete's sake?
And no offense to Martin Luther King Jr., or any of our presidents, but holidays for the leaders of this great nation pale in comparison to the commitment and devotion the millions made in protecting this nation in World War II.
Yes, we have Memorial Day. Yes, we have Veterans Day. And those are warranted and deserved.
But consider what Monday represented. There were about 16 million Americans who served in World War II, and those remaining are dying at the staggering rate of almost 500 a day, according to the calculations of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
There are fewer than 900,000 American World War II veterans left, and while they are battling the effects of aging, the details and horrors of their service are still fresh in their minds.
This D-Day slight comes after the nation circled in memory of Ali, who was remembered as a great boxing champion and an outspoken civil rights activist who was jailed because he refused to fight in Vietnam.
To call him a draft-dodger is not accurate. He refused to be drafted and accepted the punishment - famously saying, "just take me to jail" - not running to another country or trying to hide. Yes, Ali hiding seems silly considering his worldwide fame.
He fairly questioned the decisions of the government to wage a war on a foreign land when the civil rights conflicts here left black people fighting for their lives. His sacrifices - in terms of wealth and stature and his championship title - were great, so draft-dodger is not a fair term.
But is hero the right word?
We'll leave that for history to decide.
I do know one group to which the term hero certainly applies, and they protected the world from tyranny and hate in a war that turned for good 72 years ago Monday.
And we should forever remember that sacrifice every June 6.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com. His "Right to the Point" column runs on A2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.