Going to the War Zone

Planes flew low in the sky. Bombs exploded, men lay dying, and those who didn’t die thought they would. Anna Rosenberg followed the soldiers. She crawled through ditches, walked through mud, and witnessed the brutality of World War 2. Through it all, during the quiet times, she talked with the soldiers, and then she listened. 

She visited the London hospitals, meeting the soldiers who carried the injured, and she listened to those lying in the beds tell their tales. She was ferried across the English Channel to Omaha and Utah beaches. Following the army’s advance, she documented that no buildings, streets, roads, or houses remained standing.  Anna went where President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s soldiers were fighting. She was, after all, the assistant secretary of defense—the highest position ever held by a woman in the US military. 

“She sleeps on the ground: she eats the rations with the soldiers: she refuses any comforts the men don’t have. She wants to be where the fighting is thickest.”  Brigadier General Oscar Selbert reported to President Franklin D Roosevelt in 1944.

The president’s orders to the soldiers were to “see that Anna doesn’t get hurt.” The soldiers found it difficult to obey because she was determined to follow the president’s directive and her own. She abandoned her WAC uniform for Army fatigues.  Her hair now adorned with a helmet; her elaborate hats left behind as she traveled with Lieutenant General George S. Patton’s Third Army.”

President Roosevelt’s instructions were clear. “Anna, I want you to go overseas, visit all the troops, see what can be done maybe now even, but above all, see what they would like to do when they come home.

Anna traveled with the Army along “Liberty Road,” watching soldiers fight and free Europe from Hitler’s regime. As an Eastern European Jewish immigrant, she realized what would have happened to her family if they had stayed in Budapest. It was a sobering realization.

As the Army approached Metz, Anna and her soldier boys were pinned down by German fire. Being at the front and seeing firsthand the soldiers’ sacrifices reinforced her efforts to ensure every surviving soldier had an opportunity for a bright future, undeterred.

Remembering as an Immigrant

Returning to the U.S., Anna remembered how, as a child, she saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Her feelings then were conflicted. She had bade her beloved grandparents, her home, and Budapest goodbye.  She did not speak English, and their clothing was awkward, reflecting the culture of their native country. She was very homesick. However, the three of them — Anna, her mother, and her older sister — were anxious and excited to be reunited with her father. He had left for America two years prior.

Her father was a furniture craftsman who had been on the verge of bankruptcy in Budapest.  The Emperor had contracted Anna’s father to furnish the Emperor’s estate. The Emperor received the furniture at the palace, but then refused to pay for it. Anna’s father, deep in debt, had few options. He decided he did not want to live in a country where the emperor himself could abuse the citizens. With the little funds remaining, he booked passage to America. 

Anna’s father, grateful for America’s opportunities, instilled in his family the pride and promise of being an American citizen. And now, after witnessing the war firsthand, she was even more determined to do everything to preserve democracy. 

Anna ‘s Notebooks

Anna returned with notebooks filled with the names, addresses, and messages for President Roosevelt and the soldiers’ families. They had shared their hopes for survival and their dreams for their futures. She was skilled at asking questions and even more adept at listening. They confided in her.  “Would there be any jobs available? Will I be accepted back home? Will I be able to compete with the workers who did not serve in the war?  Will I forget the horrors I have witnessed? And Mrs. Rosenberg, will I be able to go to college?”

In the military, the soldiers of little means learned about the legacy admission or legacy preference that existed within the university environment. These same preferences existed in the military. The foot soldiers recognized that educated soldiers, or those with financial advantages, had more opportunities to acquire lucrative and less dangerous assignments. The soldiers realized a better future required a good education. They knew they could not afford one. It wasn’t that the foot soldiers were less capable. Many had grown up on farms and in small towns, helping their families survive the depression. They were young men with a good work ethic and common sense. Mrs. Rosenberg heard and documented the accounts of each interviewed soldier.

When she reported back to FDR, she suggested treating the returning soldiers of World War II differently from the neglected World War 1 veterans. Her goal was to create opportunities for success. One was to provide higher education to the returning soldiers. President Roosevelt agreed. However, there was some opposition in Congress.  Some Republicans feared the expansion of federal powers. In addition, Southern Congressmen and senators opposed educational aid for African American veterans.

G.I. Bill Gets Signed

Regardless, the GI bill passed. It enabled World War II veterans to fund their education, receive unemployment benefits, and obtain home loan guarantees.  The increase in educated workers led to the growth of a larger, more robust middle class. Industries and corporations acquired more skilled workers, which increased their profits. 

As veterans graduated, found jobs, and started families, the U.S. benefited financially because more middle-class workers paid higher taxes. Those monies helped sustain a growing economy. This also strengthened the nation domestically and globally as the United States became the world leader in enterprise, opportunity, and entrepreneurial pursuits. 

The American veterans who benefited least were the African Americans. They did have access to the GI Bill, but most black veterans resided in the southern states, where they were denied college and university admission because of their race. Real estate agents and lenders also rejected Black applications, preventing many from owning a home or starting a small business. Even in New York, there were real estate tycoons who refused to rent or sell to Black families. With little education, their employment opportunities were limited. Their children continued to attend inferior schools, and the limited availability of teachers and supplies further hindered their education and opportunities. There were black veterans in more progressive areas of the country who attended and graduated from college, but they were the exception. 

From FDR’s programs, the U.S. demonstrated that instituting policies and programs that encourage higher educational opportunities and healthcare were crucial to a vigorous and healthy society..

FDR’s New Deal was a disruptive idea. Some voiced concern that it would lead to socialism. What it did lead to was the GI Bill, the FDIC, the SEC, Social Security, the 40-hour workweek, a national minimum wage, and many other programs that benefited Americans, not just the wealthy and elite. FDR and his cabinet’s policies restored national and individual pride.  The country prospered, as education and healthcare helped diminish poverty and substance abuse.

Poverty and Health

Before the war and the opportunities of the GI bill, poverty had become a life sentence, passed down through generations. Study after study shows that the states and countries with the highest drug or alcohol abuse issues are attributed to economic distress and limited access to healthcare. The New Deal provided a means to an end.

As U.S. citizens, we are indebted to those who sacrificed for democracy. We should be obligated to learn from our history. Education and healthcare are now under attack, not by terrorists, communists, the Nazis, or the Russians, but by the policies of the current administration. This administration has targeted education, healthcare, scientific research, environmental issues, and climate-related initiatives. Regulations created to protect consumers have been deregulated. Large corporations and industries are not held accountable for their unethical business practices. They prioritize profits over people. The CEO’s, boards, and presidents’ actions tell the story. They lack any social responsibility. Don’s deals are defying the New Deal through extortion and executive orders. 

The middle class is slowly becoming the lower class as the lower class slips and slides into homelessness. As more workers earn less, they pay less or no taxes. The millionaires pay less taxes, if any at all, due to loopholes created by them. There are fewer taxes to support health care, education, science research, and infrastructure. 

As poverty and ill health rise, so will mental illness, homelessness, drug, and alcohol addictions. History has taught us this lesson repeatedly.  We can build walls. Walls do not stop poverty, drug, or alcohol addiction. We can label all immigrants as criminals and feel justified in deporting them back to countries that will enslave or murder them. At the same time, white-collar crimes often receive little to no accountability. The deportation without due process is illegal and is being carried out by those whose job is to enforce the law, not break it. The deportation of immigrants will not stop poverty, drug, or alcohol addiction. The administration has increased unemployment, poverty, mental health issues, drug, and alcohol addiction. 

Cancelling science and medical advancements increases health issues. We can drill, baby drill, solving immediate needs while ignoring the long-term consequences. Destroying our national forests and parks, a vital part of our ecosystem that helps clean our air and water, is short-sighted and frankly stupid. Ignoring the struggles and hardships of our neighbors and hoarding our limited supplies and food storage will be rewarded with karma. Carrying guns to protect us from bread, milk, and medicine thieves creates a false sense of security and strength. It is becoming the wild west all over the nation. We can continue to rewrite history, whitewashing or erasing the mistakes of the past, the lessons learned, and the wisdom acquired, only to be retaught the lessons repeatedly until we understand the value of our mistakes and make course corrections. 

Some day, we too might be sleeping on the ground: eating rations or berries or roots. We won’t have to refuse the comforts we enjoy today because our comforts will be a memory for some and a fairy tale for others. 

Today, we still have choices. We still have agency. We can still draw inspiration from Scripture, from history, from the wars fought, won, and lost. We can learn from countries that have risen and fallen, as well as from individuals, scholars, and one another. We can recognize that happiness, joy, and love are not commodities that can be purchased. We can be smart and learn from our mistakes or be wise and learn from the mistakes of others. Either way, we learn from mistakes. It is a mistake to dehumanize other humans. It is a mistake to promote hate or believe the color of skin, or religious affiliation, or who you love, defines you as more or less valuable.  We can choose to value humanity and the noble practice of common courtesy toward all living things on and in this world. We can choose good for goodness’ sake because it is the right thing to do. 

It is time to remember we are a community of humans. We need each other. There should be discussions. There should be respect. There should be shared knowledge. There should be space for differences. And space to consider and try on another’s point of view.

It is time. Time to listen. Time to appreciate. Time to understand. Time to make time to hear each other and consider each other.

It is still our choice, until it isn’t.