What Do You Think I Fought For at Omaha Beach?

Last Fall, during the unfortunately successful campaign to repeal Marriage Equality in Maine, 86-year-old WWII Veteran Phillip Spooner stood before a packed hall and delivered a stirring call for equality to a Senate Committee. He talks of being raised on a potato farm and being taught that all men are created equal.When asked by a woman at his polling place if he supported equal rights for gay and lesbian people. He tells how surprised he was to even be asked, and said his response was, “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?” His statement was later set to music by Melissa Dunphy, and was selected as the winning work for the 2010 Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Composition Competition.

His eloquent statement is here.

Jeremy Hooper at “Good As You” has provided the following video. “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?” was performed on May 29, 2010, at Grace and Holy Trinity in Kansas City, MO and First Presbyterian Church in Lawrence, KS. This video is taken from initial footage of the recording session on May 30, 2010, at Blessed Sacrament Church in Kansas City, KS.