In “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor: The Home Front in WWII,” the book I’m currently enjoying, Doris Kearns Goodwin points out the sacrifices Americans made during that war.
The two things they most hated to give up were girdles and coffee.
Because Japan had captured rubber- and coffee-producing countries, rationing became a necessity.
So great was the outcry over girdles - “sagging muscles in middle-aged bodies leave women without the energy to do their work” – the government capitulated on that restriction.
Coffee lovers were limited to one cup a day. (I would have demonstrated.)
By and large, Americans on the home front sacrificed. Society women had a new role model: Rosie the Riveter. The war was won on the beaches of Normandy, in the steaming tropics of the Pacific and on Main Street, USA.
Not much of that going on today with America at war in two countries.
Funny thing is: the people who thought the Iraq war was a great idea, the people who claim sole support for our troops are the very people most unwilling to pay taxes to fund it.
The Republican Party wants permanent tax cuts for the rich and for corporations, many of which are making megaprofits from the war.
Sacrifice doesn’t mean sugar rationing any more.
On this the 66th anniversary of FDR’s “day that will live in infamy,” maybe Americans could take time from life as usual to remember:
Uncle Sam still wants YOU.
***
DemWit today: “Wrong numbers”
The two things they most hated to give up were girdles and coffee.
Because Japan had captured rubber- and coffee-producing countries, rationing became a necessity.
So great was the outcry over girdles - “sagging muscles in middle-aged bodies leave women without the energy to do their work” – the government capitulated on that restriction.
Coffee lovers were limited to one cup a day. (I would have demonstrated.)
By and large, Americans on the home front sacrificed. Society women had a new role model: Rosie the Riveter. The war was won on the beaches of Normandy, in the steaming tropics of the Pacific and on Main Street, USA.
Not much of that going on today with America at war in two countries.
Funny thing is: the people who thought the Iraq war was a great idea, the people who claim sole support for our troops are the very people most unwilling to pay taxes to fund it.
The Republican Party wants permanent tax cuts for the rich and for corporations, many of which are making megaprofits from the war.
Sacrifice doesn’t mean sugar rationing any more.
On this the 66th anniversary of FDR’s “day that will live in infamy,” maybe Americans could take time from life as usual to remember:
Uncle Sam still wants YOU.
***
DemWit today: “Wrong numbers”
1 comment:
The sacrifices for Americans are yet to come, what with the continuing cost of the wars, plus corruption, and the ballooning deficit. Part of the sacrifice is felt now, with the lower value of the dollar and the high cost of gasoline.
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