Remember WWII resistance fighters

For Memorial Day, as we honor Veterans from military services, let’s remember French resistance fighters during World War II, 20% of whom were women. France’s government leadership capitulated, ordered blindly loyal police and military squads to ensnare resisters, often handing them to the Gestapo for forced labor and execution.

Undergoing great danger, collecting information about military naval installations and troop movements, operating radios for intel transmission, were high priorities. Ordinary citizens’ magnificence shone when covert messages helped Great Britain and the U.S. allies with war strategies.

Jeannie Rousseau, pretty, dependable, age 20, became a translator employed by a French industrialists’ syndicate working with German Nazi high command in Paris. Her associations at exclusive social parties led to prime intel on Hitler’s first long-range V-1 and V-2 ballistic missiles, threatening British sovereignty.

Bombardment of missile facilities on French and Dutch coastlines enabled successful D-Day Allied incursions onto France’s Normandy Beach. Her reports provided “one of the greatest intelligence coups of the war.” She survived concentration camp imprisonment.

Jeannie was a member of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade’s underground movement, largest of many secretive groups. Thousands of women rebelled against societal norms, joining the ranks of disputatious and courageous dissidents.

With perseverance and wisdom, our country won’t imitate the mistakes of WWII era French government to collaborate with ruthless murderers, instead following the rule of law, embracing liberties through democracy, and honoring the equality and dignity of all our people.

And when women continue to make significant contributions, they aren’t minimized or lost, but gloriously recognized.

Gayle Brauner

Port Angeles

Numbers guy, again

As a recovering engineer, it is part of my healing journey to eliminate my preoccupation with numbers but, truly, this presents a personal challenge.

For instance, I find myself fascinated with the soaring number of illegal border crossings — 5.4 million since Biden took office — plus another 1.5 million “got-aways” (cornyn.senate.gov). Moreover, the number of “paroled” migrants entering the U.S. under Biden simply dwarfs the numbers entering under both Obama and Trump (“Trump vs. Biden on immigration: 12 charts comparing U.S. border security,” washingtonpost.com).

One can only wonder at where this overwhelming number of new arrivals are going and what they are doing. And are they helping or hindering our economy?

Another attention-grabbing number is the $7 trillion increase in taxes projected by the Biden administration in 2025 (“The Biden Tax Hike Will Likely Exceed $7 Trillion,” gop-waysandmeans.house.gov) which, oddly, targets those who are relatively poor as evidenced by the fact that fully fifty percent of the audits would be directed to families making less than $25,000 (denver7.com).

Obviously, this tax hike is not about relief for the middle/lower classes but more about supporting increased exorbitant government spending and which will be “crushing for hardworking Americans struggling under Bidenomics”(“Biden’s proposed tax hike would crush workers and the economy,” thehill.com)

Lastly, some more numbers deserving of interest is our dramatically increasing poverty rate whereby some 12.4% of the population now lives in poverty which is up from 7.4% in 2021. Even more concerning is that child poverty more than doubled to 12.4% from 5.2% the year before and, obviously, these are not good numbers. (“Why poverty is rising in America,” americaninequality.substack.com)

Seems that, wherever one looks, numbers are way up.

Hopefully, come next election, Biden’s number will be up as well.

Dick Pilling

Port Angeles