(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)
We visited both the German military cemetery and the main American military cemetery in Normandy a few days back. The latter, as our guide that day rightly pointed out, is — given its nature as a cemetery — a palpably life-affirming and magnificently beautiful place. Yesterday, we returned on our own to the visitors center at the American cemetery. And I have to admit that I was shocked, and surprised by my shock, at seeing the scowling visage of our current president above the entryway.
One of the concerns that I expressed when he was running for the presidency was that he would, if elected, not only serve as our head of government (equivalent, in many countries, to a prime minister) but as our head of state (which is, in some countries, the monarch, and, in others, a mostly ceremonial president). I felt that he had grave problems relating to the first role, but that he was quite incapacitated for the latter. And, honestly, the photograph reminded me, jarringly, of that concern.
For all my reservations about Barack Obama — I’m a lifelong and quite serious conservative who voted against Mr. Obama twice — his photograph on the wall wouldn’t have been so disquieting to me. Certainly he would have been smiling.
Posted from Pontorson, Normandy, France
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