There Was a Real Devil on This June 6~ 6.6.2006

Photograph courtesy of Robert Capa/Magnum Photography
A soldier of the 16th Infantry Regiment kicks through the water in the first assault wave at Easy Red sector, Omaha Beach, on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Satan.
Evil.
The Omen.
666.
It’s a day to keep in mind. A day to be careful. A day to be fretful. A day to be wary.
Most of all, it’s turning out to be a day to be silly.
I’ve heard mention of today’s date now for the past week. The date is ominous: 6/6/06.
That’s the devil’s number, you see, so we all should watch our step today.
The news media is rife with anecdotes about the numerology.
A good one is about some expectant women who were due today. They were apparently soliciting their obstetricians to induce them early so they would not deliver a baby on this “end of days.”
Nobody wants to be Damien’s mom.
But of course, to those of us in possession of IQs above double-digit levels, this is just momentary puerile behavior. Not unlike that which we exhibit at Halloween.
It’s just a little fun.
But there is a deeper, more serious, and — given the attention overpaid to the silly Satanic meaning of this date — a somewhat sad circumstance surrounding this June 6, 2006.
Yet the popular media chooses to lean toward advertising the remake of The Omen more than they lean toward what this day really signifies.
This is the 62nd anniversary of the Normandy Invasion. Thousands of young men sacrificed life, limb, and youth to crush a foe that was then considered the very epitome of evil.
Real evil; not some trendy, spooky, over-commercialized, ersatz malevolence that exists only in someone’s adolescent mind (or in someone’s special effects).
The numbers 666 mean nothing.
The numbers 156000 and 2500 do: 156,000 Allied troops landed that day; 2,500 died.
They were facing Satan incarnate, and I’ll spend my reverie on them today.
They, at least, are worth keeping in mind.
To learn more about D-Day click here.