image via Insight Financial Strategists LLC
When the truth feels a little sketchy? Get a second opinion.
A real estate agent listed my English mother in law’s house in Culver City, CA.
They talked about the market, then the price.
The real estate lady gave her best number.
My mother in law disagreed, too low, and gave her number.
It sold for more than the asking price.
She gave her own second opinion and came away better for it.
When it works out you’re supposed to come away better.
Doctors carry the same second opinion burden. You’re supposed to come away better for them.
But doctors aren’t the only people with important second opinions.
D-Day second opinions started here.
Europe understands WWII like it was yesterday. At least they should after two World Wars chewed through their land, their cities, and their people.
But memories need refreshing.
Some probably get it better than others. People with family memories most of all.
This is the Cambridge American Cemetery.
Officially it’s the final resting place for soldiers and sailors and airmen who left on missions and never came back.
The G family visited English relatives. Aunt Betty guided us here.
It didn’t seem like a regular stop on the tour trail, but it was always on hers.
Aunt Betty was a WWII nurse.
After D-Day was the busiest time of her life, she said.
Her opinion was this cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who landed on Normandy beaches.
Who would disagree? Not me. No second opinion needed. White crosses and Stars of David do enough.
Neville Chamberlain gave England a second opinion on war with the Munich Agreement in 1938.
Just not for Czechoslovakia.
The Munich Agreement (30 September 1938)
With war seemingly looming on the horizon, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Berlin on September 15, 1938, in an attempt to “secure peace.”
After listening to Hitler’s complaints and rants about the Sudeten issue, Chamberlain called his bluff, saying, “If I’ve understood you correctly then you’re determined in any event to proceed against Czechoslovakia…Under these circumstances it’s best if I leave straight away. Apparently, it’s all pointless.” Thus, Chamberlain took a hard line against Hitler’s threats.
Hitler balked and agreed to postpone military action if Chamberlain would discuss a resolution to the crisis. Italian leader Benito Mussolini and Hitler’s own entourage likely advised Hitler to avoid war. Chamberlain returned on September 29 with Prime Minister Daladier of France and Mussolini to reach a final settlement. They agreed that the Sudeten territory would be ceded to Germany. Czechoslovakian leaders were neither present nor consulted, but it was made clear that they would receive no support if they declined the terms. Hitler agreed and Chamberlain, believing he had averted war, proclaimed “Peace for our time” to a crowd upon his arrival in England.
The cost of wrong second opinions.
Inside the building at the end of the water walk are American state windows all along the top of the walls.
In a strange coincidence the number of Oregon dead, missing, wounded, and released prisoners listed, 1,859, is the same number as the year Oregon became a state.
Side bar: When the smart news people get called Fake News, they’ve got a fixable problem. Start delivering well supported news, stories with believable elements. Show your work.
Second opinions in a graveyard full of sons and daughters.
Men with sons understand what it feels like to see them walking between the graves of a generation.
Those crosses could be for any of you. And they are.
My father is a decorated Korean War combat Marine. I was an emt Army medic with my own ambulance. Along with two brothers and a sister, we all lined up for our country.
The graves across the Cambridge American Cemetery with my boys, their Ma, and Aunt Betty?
It was a ‘know your place in the Universe’ for this dad’s day, a flash of ‘give peace a chance.’
That’s all I’m asking, “Give peace a chance.”
About David Gillaspie
