68 years ago on D-Day, a price was paid for our liberty to disagree

68 Years Ago, there was an event that should remind us how lucky we are to hold elections and what elections are held for.

For those of us dwelling on yesterday's Recall (Re-Run) election in Wisconsin, I hope you paused at some point today and remembered that 68 years ago young men fought and died for the right to hold, win and lose elections under our Constitution. Such men as these continue to do so today, pledging their lives to defend our Constitution and your liberty to agree to disagree - please remember the point, and the cost.

And something else, remember that these men were then, and are today, not the central casting cranks Hollywood often likes to pawn off on us. This, from a dedication ceremony for a statue commemorating them, I think gives a much clearer picture of those who did, and do, serve our nation:

The unveiling of the Colorado-made statue of Pennsylvania native Maj. Dick Winters was one of many events marking Wednesday's 68th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied operation that paved the way for the end of the war.

The 12-foot (3.6-meter) tall bronze statue in the Normandy village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont shows Winters with his weapon at the ready. But Winters — a native of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, who died last year at age 92 — only accepted serving as the statue's likeness after monument planners agreed to dedicate it to the memory of all junior U.S. military officers who served that day.

"There were many Dick Winters in this war, and all deserve the bronze and glory of a statue," said former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, present as the bronze statue, draped in a camouflage parachute, was unveiled.

Also attending were four or five D-Day vets, including two who served in Winters' "Easy Company," Al Mampre and Herb Suerth Jr.

Winters "was a humble, simple person thrust into a position of leadership in which he excelled," said Suerth, who heads the association of former Easy Company vets, only 19 of whom survive.

68 years ago, men like these paid a price for your liberty to disagree about politics. Far, far too many of these men, did not live to be old men, and that too will be true for so many of our young men and women today.

Let them at least live in your memory of what they did, and what they died for, and why.