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Two special events during D-Day week
My Turn
I was slated to be an active participant in the activities, but my wife had a doctor's appointment. I called librarian Sherry Tabor and told her we might be late.
She told me that would be no problem and not to worry about it. She also said that someone had been selected to read my poem, "Free Libraries for Free People" to those attending the ceremony.
We left Mercy Regional Medical Center after the doctor's visit and drove directly to the library, where we had a problem finding a parking place. Still, we were not late for most of the ceremony, which was conducted by the Masonic Lodge with a good deal of pomp and ceremony.
After the cornerstone laying, Durango historian and Fort Lewis College professor Duane Smith delivered a brief and somewhat amusing speech in which he quoted Mark Twain as saying, "In most cases, when everyone agrees to something, five minutes later a fight breaks out," but when it comes to a free public library, everyone always agrees that it's a wonderful institution.
He also quoted Andrew Carnegie, who said, "If you die with a fortune, you haven't fulfilled your duty to society." Carnegie was the 19th-century Scottish immigrant and tycoon who donated his fortune to building free public libraries all over America.
Before the Tuesday cornerstone laying, Laura and I had celebrated the 65th anniversary of the June 6 D-Day landing, code-named Overlord, on the Normandy shore by the Allied forces. We viewed the DVD "Saving Private Ryan," and another DVD "A Foreign Field," which is available at the Durango Public Library.
Finally, I recalled what my brother Lloyd had told me of "The Mulberries," another code name for a large number of Liberty Ships that had been sunk purposely just offshore of the Omaha Beach landing area. Lloyd told me the artificial harbor was a red lake because of the blood. It was a startling, sickening and almost unbelievable sight. He knew he'd never forget it.
Few people here and elsewhere have ever forgotten it. About 600,000 troops had swarmed ashore on June 6, 1944, in the largest invasion force since the Spanish Armada had approached England in the 16th century. The Spanish failed, but the Allied forces succeeded, although at a very high price.
Charlie Langdon is the Herald's senior critic. He can be reached at langdons@gobrainstorm.net.
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