The struggle is real ... and necessary!

“These endured all and gave all that justice among nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace.”

These are the words inscribed around the chapel located at the center of the American Cemetery in Normandy, France. The author is unknown.

There is a beauty in anonymity, which frees us to contemplate their meaning unhindered by any perceived bias. To me, these words capture the human spirit that seeks justice, freedom and peace. The words may speak differently to you and that is OK.

While the author is unknown, the place is well known. The cemetery overlooks Omaha Beach, where the allied forces landed on June 6, 1944 — more familiarly known as D-Day. For some context, I note the following. The landing was more than 50 miles long. 7,000 naval vessels and more than 11,000 aircraft supported the landing. The allied landing force consisted of 160,000 troops. Allied fatalities totaled 4,414.

Like many events in human history, statistics do not capture the enormity of this event. Limited by the frame of the camera, motion picture portrayals fall short, too.

Historians can capture the geopolitical factors of the time, the statistics, maps, diagrams and quotations by participants and observers. Even their best efforts are only a shadow of reality.

The closest we can come is from the voices of those that were present — the survivors. Eighty years later, the number of these veterans is dwindling and so we inherit the responsibility to tell their story the best we can.

On June 6, 1994 — the 50th anniversary of D-Day — I was present with my grandfather and namesake, John S. Aragon. Returning after 50 years, he shared his own story, which took place a few days after the initial landing.

I returned this past May, a few weeks before the 80th anniversary. Met by perfectly-manicured grounds and dress-right-dress headstones there was an unspoken solemnity to the visit. Not planned, but by chance, we were present for the playing of the National Anthem, followed by Taps and 21-guns salute. Emotionally stirring to be sure.

Close by and along the coast, modern day French fighter-jets conducted aerial maneuvers. Their presence garnered great enthusiasm from the French schoolchildren visiting in large numbers. To me, their presence was a sobering reminder that preparation for potential conflicts continues.

Although I made numerous attempts in the days that followed my return visit, I could not find the words to capture everything I witnessed. I finally wrote everything that came to mind and let it set. Some of what I wrote survived in this story.

I have visited numerous battlefields over the years. Those battles fought on foreign soil and those battles fought in the founding of our country and in the preservation of the same. The stories of individual heroism and individual sacrifice are all different but also all similar.

These stories capture the actions, but they do not capture the spirit — the sights, the smells, the noises, the taste and the feel of combat coupled with the adrenaline, the fatigue, and the fear unique to each individual and each situation.

Some stories are lost to war itself. Some carry too much pain to ever be shared in words. Any act of love in combat is a story worthy of being shared. This sharing may be as slight as a knowing nod from one combat veteran to another or that of a tearful embrace.

Like the stories of heroism and sacrifice, each war is different but similar, too. The Latin, jus-ad-bellum, defines the concept of a just war. However, justice is seldom found in the graves of those sacrificed or in the lives of those that survived.

Ultimately, the story is the struggle. The opening quote speaks to “these,” an attribution to those that died and those that survived. It speaks not to the struggle of nations but the struggle of each individual human. Appropriately, it denotes that nations are the beneficiaries of the individual sacrifice.

While the author of the quote is unknown, much has been well said about struggle.

In his, “The Death of Evil upon the Seashore,” sermon, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”

In his Gettysburg address, President Abraham Lincoln said, “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

In his West India Emancipation speech Frederick Douglas said, “This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle.”

The entirety of the Declaration of Independence was a treatise to the impending struggle of our new nation.

Independence Day is a celebration not only of a single day in history, but also of the continued struggle to achieve the lofty goals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all peoples.

Happy Independence Day!