Fourth Of July Fireworks Over San Diego Bay, California*
Part I of II
Wherever we will be on this 2025 Independence Day, and whatever we have planned, let’s remember our freedom is NOT FREE. If we don’t fight for it, we can and will lose it. History warns us of that. President Reagan stated: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
We have already lost much that must be recaptured. The past several years in particular have witnessed painful reminders of the immense jeopardy we are in if we do not fight for what others secured for us at great cost and sacrifice.
Memories have grown dim in this country, but there are some in other nations who have not forgotten their past liberations by the U.S. military. I have seen tears in the eyes of those who remembered for a long time the horrors of war. As children in WWII, many watched their families, towns and lives destroyed. They lived in fear — millions of them — and it was never going to end. Husbands, fathers, brothers, very young boys, were mercilessly gunned down in front of women and children, just for being civilians in the wrong places at the wrong time. Those who experienced it or heard it from their elders point to the precise locations. There was no hope UNTIL the day American tanks rolled into their towns, and the people went wild with joy!
On Liberation Day, August 5, 1945, for one town in Northwestern France — when the first U.S. tank arrived:
Proprietary photos, all rights reserved. © Copyright Diraison family archives. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
At commemorative events, held annually on the anniversaries of their liberation, local citizens and visitors join in singing our U.S. national anthem with the same zeal they hold for their own, laying flowers at the tombs of fallen American soldiers, and honoring our flag. They organize re-enactments of key events, employing restored vehicles, equipment and even uniforms abandoned after the war and carefully restored. For those who participate it wasn’t that long ago. Let us not make their past our future. Who would be our deliverers?
I was privileged to ride in the back seat of this restored American jeep several summers ago when revisiting the trail of General Patton’s Sixth Division in northwestern France. Even the uniforms, etc. were authentic relics. Very sobering considering the forgetfulness our great nation suffers from!
U.S. Military re-enactment, 2017. Original vehicle restored. Deliverance of sections of Brittany, France on August 5, 1945. ©Exclusive copyright photo Nancy Diraison. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.
We must fight back and restore what we have been losing. It’s everyone’s job! Quoting again from President Reagan: “Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid!”
Freedom is not lost by accident — it is lost by the design of some and the slumber and neglect of others.
Part II of 2025 Independence Day posts next week.
© Copyright Nancy Diraison/Diraison Publishing, June 27, 2025. All Rights Reserved. Respectful sharing permitted with appropriate source credit and link back to this website. Copyright infringement constitutes fraud and theft.
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Headline Photo: *Fourth Of July Fireworks Over San Diego Bay, California
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Soldier with flag
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