I collect quotes from all over the world. Those of you who receive my Internet emails see a new quote every week. They are guideposts for everyday, and sometime extraordinary, events in our lives. They're wonderfully amazing because they cross all cultures as every one has defined and clarified our tenuous state of existence with similar words of wisdom. Meet a person who can offer a few good quotes and you've found yourself a person of principle.

Below are selected photos of the World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. taken Thursday September 30, 2004. I thought the quotes were remarkable as I remember several of them as a child in school. I questioned by two children (one an AP scholar in high school, and the other a junior at U.S.C.) on the quotes and they never hear of them with the exception of President Roosevelt's "...a day in infamy". So much for our modern educational system.

To my chagrin I did not take a picture of FDR's famous quote from his Declaration of War, December 8, 1941 refereed to above.

I regret to report that the ACLU and other liberal factions succeeded in removing that last part of his famous speech where the President concludes by emphasizing our intended victory with "...so help us God!*" This has been an issue of contention by veteran organizations and others across this country since the completion of the memorial. Nowhere on, or near, this massive monument will you see the word "God". I'm not being fussy here. If anything in our nation should be historically correct it is our monuments to the men and women who've given their lives for this great country in His name.

The same complaint holds true to the huge plaque pictured below at the main entrance to the WWII memorial.

As with our Pledge of Allegiance , our legislative and court systems, and with our money it has always been "Liberty and Justice under God" as it has been in my schooling. Our constitution and every other document used in the formation of this country are based on the fact that our human rights were given to us by 'somebody' who the founders agreed to call "God." If it's someone else, I, for one, would like to know. It's this premise that has made all we know that is good about out country possible.When it's "under God", you can't take away as the French tragically found out in their version that was not "under God" but under their King who wasted no time taking it away.

*Ref. Great American Speeches Vol. 3, 1931-1947 by Caedmon Records, TC 2033, ©1969 by John Graham

I borrowed this picture from the Internet. The FDR Declaration of War excerpt above reads as follows;

Pearl Harbor

"December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy...no matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

The end of the last line should read:

"...so help us God!"

It was intentionally left off.

"Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln, one the eighteenth century father and the other the nineteenth century preserver of our nation, we honor those twentieth century Americans who took up the struggle during the Second World War and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us: a nation conceived in Liberty and Justice."

World War II Memorial

"They have given their sons to the military services. They have stoked the furnaces and hurried the factory wheels. They have made the planes and welded the tanks, riveted the ships and rolled the shells."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

"We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on one hand and overwhelming force on the other."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

D-Day    June 6, 1944

"You are about to embark upon the greatest crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you...I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle."

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

"They fought together as brothers-in-arms. They died together and now they sleep side by side. To them we have a solemn obligation."

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

World War II Seal of Liberty

Battle Of Midway    June 4-7, 1942

"They had no right to win. Yet they did. And in doing so they changed the course of a war...Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit a magic blend of skill, faith and valor that can left men from certain defeat to incredible victory."

Walter Lord, author