It’s nothing like the one that Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, but it is a trip that’s very special and personal to me, and I try to do each Summer. It’s to get on the Metro train to downtown Washington from where I live here in suburban Maryland – the same train I take to the Sirius XM Washington, D. C., studios – and get off at a station only a few blocks from the White House and walk down onto the National Mall.
For one who has a strong heartfelt regard for the history of this nation, it gives me a warm feeling to walk these grounds and visit the various memorials located there, especially the World War Two Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.
Abraham Lincoln became one of my heros very early in my life, as one of the first things I read after getting past Dick and Jane and Spot, the dog, was a children’s book about the life of young Abe Lincoln and the struggles of his family during those growing up years. Then, when in 5th grade we studied American history, I became connected to the entirety of this great man who is still considered one of our greatest presidents ever.
Photo by Rick Latoff, courtesy of American Battle Monuments Commission
My return to the Nation’s Capital for a second time in late 2000 to work in radio came from receiving an offer from XM Satellite Radio to be the Program Director of its 1940’s era channel when the new satellite radio service launched in 2001. Hence, when the World War II Memorial opened in 2004, I felt a special attachment to it … as my God-inspired thinking from the beginning was that our programming on this channel that covered such a significant time in our nation’s – and the world’s, including Canada, which had troops fighting in Europe before the United States ever entered the war – had to embody the historical aspect of the period, not just be an era-based jukebox.
In that I am older than Bill Gaither, I’m old enough to remember things that impacted our families here on the home front, such as food and gas ration stamps and blackout curtains over our windows at night, as we were within a hundred miles of the Atlantic Ocean … even though I don’t remember hearing much about the war itself.
During my visit to the monuments this year, I saw persons of all ages and nationalities, including many families. My prayer is that parents will take time to educate their children as to what these monuments stand for and why they were built … that they are more than simply beautiful structures of marble and stone.
Let us never forget the impact that this war and this president had on this nation and the world, one for the good, the other for the bad. And, may they never become a forgotten part of our history!
Marlin
