Rainbow City? Really?

You bet. I have heard a couple of reasons why it has that name over the years, the most logical one being because Rainbow Drive curves around like a rainbow as it hugs the riverbank, even though the curvy part is in Gadsden proper.

The explanation I like best, and which Rainbow City mentions on its website, is that several men from the area were in the Rainbow Division which was formed during World War I. It was created from several different National Guard Units among 26 states and the District of Columbia and its chief of staff, Major Douglas MacArthur, said it "would stretch over the whole country like a rainbow."

The timing makes sense if you think about it because Gadsden's Country Club opened just after the war and that stretch of road leading to it, where the curve is, would have been fairly newly created. And that's time enough for local men who served in World War I to come home and rebuild their lives a bit and seek to honor their comrades.

So, I had heard this as a kid, grew up with it, heard it again in my World War I classes in college (I was always a history geek). But I will tell you the last place I ever expected to come across mention of the Rainbow Division was in southern Germany.

We had opted to go to Dachau, though it is a grim trip. I recommend it. The main monument in the camp says it best - Never Forget. We can't forget what evil there is in the world, and what people will do to one another if left unchecked. We have to speak up.

As noted, I am a sucker for history and never pass up a chance to read a historic markers. As I stood inside the gates of Dachau, reading the walls, I came across this marker, which reduced me to tears. This is not my picture of it, but I have this picture.


Different war, different men, I get it. But they were Americans, and they did the right thing when called upon and would have whether it was their duty or not. No matter where they came from, they are my countrymen and I am proud.

I don't think I have ever been anywhere more disturbing than Dachau in my life. Bavaria is beautiful - surpringly like home, in fact, but I remember the city of Dachau as a gritty, ugly place. And I realize cities grow over 60 years, but it seemed as if the camp was practically in the middle of town. The citizenry had to know what the military was doing, but turned a blind eye. It makes you shiver a little to wonder what we'd do today in similar circumstances.

So, because I feel I need to tie this post up neatly and make it relate to the wedding somehow, I'll say this. Perhaps when we see rainbows, or Rainbow Drives, or Rainbow Cities, we can think not of leprechauns and pots of gold, but of hope, liberation of the body and spirit, love of your fellow man and doing the right thing - not just out of duty, but because it's the right thing to do. All pretty good ideals upon which to found a marriage, don't you think?