Happy 234th Birthday America! Here's a short teaser for my new free story "L, T & W" It's the story a Hoosier serving in WWII with some perspective on contemporary times. Please feel free to share and comment. Please thank Our Veterans and remember to pray for our Troops. Have a safe and fun July 4th! Thank you and God bless the United States of America! TPT Text of "The Declaration of Independence" IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. — John Hancock
Honor Our Veterans. 65th Anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa...World War II's Last Battle. The Battle of Okinawa began April 1st, 1945, and ended 82 days later on June 22nd. It was one of the bloodiest and most cruel battles of the war. The main objective of the operation was to seize the large island only 340 miles away from mainland Japan in order to cut the distance B-29 bombers had to travel. The initial invasion, known as Operation Iceberg, took place on Easter Sunday and sustained only 25 American casualties, caused by Japanese kamikaze planes. But the number of dead soon began to soar. In the end, more than 12,000 American troops were killed, with more than 38,000 wounded. On the Japanese side, more than 110,000 soldiers were killed, with an estimated 42,000 to 150,000 civilians dying. Many of the civilian deaths among the Japanese came in the form of mass suicides. As the battle went on and American victory became more imminent, the Japanese Army directed civilians to kill themselves and portrayed American soldiers as barbarians who would soon be on a murderous rampage. The violent nature of the battle and sheer number of casualties was a major influence in President Truman's final decision to use atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Okinawa - At the Emperor's Doorstep" episode from "WWII: GI Diary"..... This old 1978 TV docu-drama was narrated by Lloyd Bridges and told the stories of real soldiers/sailors/pilots and their first-hand experiences in battle. Archival footage and good background music really made the stories come alive.....about 25 episodes were made. Video converted from really old VHS tape.......... This is the story of the invasion and capture of the island of Okinawa in 1945--the last major land battle of WW2.....part 1 of 3.
July 28, 2009 — Forty veterans traveled on the first Hoosier Honor Flight that took them to several sites in D.C. including the WWII Memorial. Video by Jeremy Hogan for the Herald Times Online.
"Warum bist du hier?" For the Six million Jewish souls lost during the Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" and the systematic murder of millions more the Axis powers committed during WWII. For Warren (1922-1945) and for Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns (1969 – 2009) "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." from Band of Brothers Episode 9 "Why We Fight" [HD] - Nazi Work camp (Arbeitslager) directed by David Frankel and written by John Orloff. Executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. October 28, 2001 HBO Winters: Can you ask him, uh, ask him what kind of camp this is? Um, what, ah, why are they are? Liebgott: (speaks German to a prisoner and translates his replies) He says, it's a work camp for, Unerwunschte. I'm not sure what the word means, sir. Uh, unwanted, disliked maybe? Winters: (guessing) Criminals? Liebgott: I don't think criminals, sir. (speaks to prisoner again, realizing) Doctors, musicians, tailors, clerks, farmers, intellectuals. I mean, normal people. Prisoner:: Juden. Juden. Liebgott: (softly) They're Jews. Poles and gypsies. A concentration camp near Landsberg is discovered by a patrol. This site leaves many soldiers both shocked and disgusted at what they're witnessing at the hands of the Nazis. The episode was based on the liberation of Kaufering IV in the area of Hurlach. for more go to http://www.ushmm.org/ http://www.nationalww2museum.org/
Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.
The Trailer for my up & coming release, Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: The Saga of World War II. The movie will be premiered both here on Watch Evansville and on Owensboro Public Access on Dec. 7, 2009.