What Provokes Greatness?
April 2nd, 2008
This thought came to me while standing on Omaha Beach, one of the American landing beaches on D-Day. I think about the future and it is clear to me that humanity will need to find greatness to face some of the issues it faces now and in the next decade. We need to rise up to a level of commitment, collaboration, will and innovation that seems far from universal today. There is no question but that we can and that we will need to do so. The question is how we rise up to this level of greatness.
Standing on Omaha Beach, and later the same day on Utah Beach I was struck by the magnitude of D-Day. The heroism, valor, loss of life, and incredible stories of individual and collective victory are usually what comes to mind when thinking of this invasion. Those thoughts usually are of the soldiers, but there were larger forces at work. Things were done that had never been done before. Plans were created based on no prior human experience. Let me give you just one example.
The Nazi military command built unprecedented fortifications on the …
Omaha Beach
March 25th, 2008
I just returned from a trip through Normandy with my son. The focus of our visit was the beaches of D-Day. I was trying to connect a column billed as “A Future Look at Today†to the powerful emotions I was feeling. On Omaha beach there is nothing on the beach to acknowledge what occurred on June 6, 1944 except for a very modern sculpture dedicated in 2004 for the 60th anniversary. Nearby was a plaque with the words of the sculptor, Anilore Banon, as to his creative inspiration for his creation, “The Wings of Hopeâ€
“So that the spirit which carried these men on June 6, 1944 continues to inspire us, reminding us that together it is always possible to change the futureâ€
Connection made
