remembering veterans

blue angels in san fran 10/2007

i'm not a patriotic person but i've grown to understand how lucky i am to live in the united states. a couple of months ago we travelled to prague, budapest and amsterdam. the lasting influence from the nazi and communist regimes in those cities (and all of europe) is beyond my comprehension. the iron curtain fell less than 20 years ago in 1980's/1990's. our hotel driver in prague told us fascinating stories about the nature of the police state before the iron curtain fell. it never hits you until you're there. scary.

here are the museums we visited:

prague's communist museum

budapest's house of terror
amsterdam's anne frank house

then, after our trip, the ken burns' documentary the war was on pbs. a great documentary. an interesting aspect of the film that struck me was the attitudes of the americans. before pearl harbor, they were idyllic and in their own world. the troubles of the outside world was not their problem. the interesting part is that's how i feel now. although i don't have any relatives that are u.s. veterans, i truly appreciate all the young soldiers who sacrificed their lives.