Tuesday the 19th of February 1945 marks the 75th anniversary of the storming of Iwo Jima by some 80,000 U.S Marines. This small island in the Pacific played a critical role in the pacific theater and waged on for 36 days killing more than 6,000 American Soldiers.
Four days later Joe Rosenthal snapped perhaps the most iconic war picture from the second World War. The image is of six soldiers from the 28th regiment 5th division Marines triumphantly raising the stars and stripes on top of Mt. Suribachi. Of these 6 Marines, 3 of them would answer the ultimate call of service to their country and leave the island draped under an American flag in the name of ensuring democracy for our nation and for others.
Fast forward to 74 years and 364 days and you would find me sitting in the jury waiting room at 8:30 A.M Monday morning. I’m pretty sure that no one gets that letter in the mail and thinks to themselves ” Oh, Sweet. Jury duty I’m pumped about that.” However, the level of disdain and utter lack of respect for a constitutional right was appalling by a few of the people who were sitting in that same room with me. One fellow juror who was picked in the group before me was back down in the waiting room a few minutes later and joyously announced he had been removed from his duties and could leave. I later overheard that when asked to take his hat off when entering the courtroom by a bailiff he told him in several words that were not going to use in this blog how he felt about that. Essentially this gentleman and I use that term loosely was rewarded for actions that should have left him sitting in contempt of court for the rest of day.
12-20-2020
A lot has changed since I started this blog post in mid-February of this year. I’ve got quite a few incomplete thoughts saved in the cloud and every once in a while it’s nice to come back and read them and utilize what I’ve learned since hitting save to finally finish out the puzzle.
I remember being so disappointed in a large portion of that room on that Monday in February. I heard a lot of me, me, me this is so terrible, horrible and a major inconvenience for me! Why did I have to get picked for this, I don’t want to be here, I’m going to tell the judge I hate cops, criminals, or whatever I need to say to get out of this. Did I really want to be there doing my part as a citizen of this country, NO, I did not! But when you are called upon to be a part of something bigger than yourself you make the necessary sacrifices to answer that call. And the call of sitting in an air-conditioned room all day is a very lite load to bear by the way.
The men who served in world war 2 didn’t want to leave their families for years on end, they didn’t want to work under the horrendous conditions they faced and they surely didn’t want to die on some far off island in the pacific. But they answered the call for the greater good of America and the world. They made sacrifices to their freedoms that I will likely never understand and hope never to experience. The next time I think that something in 2020 is a horrible inconvenience for me or is an encroachment on my freedom I’m going to think about the guys who raised that flag for their brothers living and dead and remember that I don’t have a leg to stand on.
Subjects to change 