Star-Ledger Columnist Emeritus remembers his father, a World War I veteran.
Copy of a photo of Harry Izenberg, father of Star-Ledger Columnist Emeritus Jerry Izenberg, from about 1917. My father was an immigrant to whom the American Dream was more than a cliché. It was a beacon that brought his family here dirt-poor, driven by nightmare memories from Eastern Europe that he later shared with me.
To a set of eyes riveted in a new millennium, the uniform he wears appears to be on leave from another world. The boots are high and polished, the trousers tucked inside. The high-collared fatigue jacket is buttoned from waist to throat and tightly sculpted to his torso. Tilted ever so slightly on his head is the high-crowned, broad-brimmed campaign hat.
Ecclesiastes tells us of man and his seasons, of “a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.” That’s what the picture is all about, because he was a man who lived through war but never let war live in him. He was a greenhorn in a foreign country who had never seen or played in a baseball game. He couldn’t speak the language. But he discovered that day that he could hit a baseball. Decades later, it was his view that he became an American then and there in that schoolyard.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Memorial Day weekend kicks off in Chicago’s Daley Plaza with wreath-laying, parade to ‘remember and honor over 1.2 million American heroes’Memorial Day weekend kicks off in Daley Plaza with traditional wreath-laying, parade to ‘remember and honor over 1.2 million American heroes’
Read more »
Dolph Lundgren reflects on Memorial Day: It’s about ‘remembering’ those who made the ‘ultimate sacrifice’'Expendables' star Dolph Lundgren delivered an important message for people to remember on this Memorial Day as he teams up with U.S. Army veteran Colin Wayne in the Redline Steel CEO’s initiative to raise money for families who have lost loved ones at war.
Read more »
Thousands of American flags placed across Lynnwood to honor fallen heroesThousands of American flags were placed across Lynnwood on Saturday to honor our fallen heroes this Memorial Day weekend. FOX13
Read more »
Boy Scouts of Alabama place flags to remember Veterans at Alabama State Veterans Memorial Cemetery for Memorial DayCub Scouts Pack 321 went to each grave and placed an American flag, honoring our military servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice
Read more »