The Weekly Digest (May 28, 2023)

Happy Sunday, Brionies — We’re taking a break from San Francisco politics this weekend in observance of Memorial Day.

Instead, we recommend to you this short speech given by President Ronald Reagan in Normandy on June 6, 1984.

Forty years earlier to the day, US Army Rangers took Pointe du Hoc as part of Operation Overlord — the D-Day invasion. Given the tactical circumstances, it was one of the most courageous military feats ever performed. The Rangers scaled a sheer cliff to overcome an entrenched enemy in a superior position, suffered 70 percent casualties, and destroyed the most dangerous German artillery and anti-aircraft emplacement in Normandy.

Their success allowed American and British troops to land at Omaha and Utah beaches, directly providing for the invasion of Hitler's Fortress Europe and the liberation of the continent from Nazi tyranny. Each one of those Rangers could be said, without qualification, to have saved hundreds of lives that day, who went on to save hundreds more, who went on to save hundreds more.

May the memories of those who did not return home be a blessing to their loved ones, and may God bless America.