First of all, let me take care of a little blogging business.
I have been remiss in posting comments on my last two or three blog posts.
That has now been corrected so you can go back to The Friday Funnies, Wet & Foggy, and Road Trip and see that your comments are finally there.
I have comment moderation set up and Blogger is supposed to email me whenever a new comment is posted so I can okay it.
Somehow my email address was removed from "the system" and I didn't discover it until this morning.
Hopefully it won't happen again.
Now on a much more serious note, today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
On December 7th, 1941 . . 81 years ago . . Japan attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a surprise raid that inflicted monumental damage.
The U.S.S. Arizona suffered a direct hit and sank on the spot, taking with it the lives of over 11 hundred servicemen.
It became their final resting place and a Pearl Harbor visitation center was later built over what remained.
December 7th is "...a date that will live in infamy...", in the words of then President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he called for U.S. entry into World War Two.
It's a day for memories and introspection.
And for peace.
By coincidence the events of December 7th are featured today in my post too.
ReplyDeleteand, my grandmother's birthday. I remember my mother's story about that day and, especially, the next day. She lived in Brooklyn and took the train to Manhattan where she worked. She was 25. The day after the bombing in Hawaii, her train could not make it all the way to her stop as Wall Street was so crowded with young and old men alike trying to sign up for service that no train traffic there could move so she had to walk the rest of the way.
ReplyDeleteI always forget what date it is so thanks for the reminder. December is rushing by!
ReplyDeleteIt is good to remember, and as we say Never Forget. This is what humans do to each other.
ReplyDeleteBruce...looking back at the last decades, and particularly this year, looking at the news coverage. Even 10 years ago, it was a featured topic, this day. Now, it's 'below the fold', and even then, in major news, one had to look for it. (How's that for a run on sentence?).
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing the same thing in other anniversaries, Korea, the Chosin gauntlet, Viet Nam, Mai Lai, etc.
I suppose it's inevitable. We are fading into the dustbin of history.
"a date that will live in infamy" yet how many of us remember it without being reminded? I know I don't.
ReplyDeleteWe took a day long tour of Pearl Harbor, the ships, the submarines, the airbase and the Arizona. It was worth it. Senator Daniel Inouye was a senior in HS and a first aid instructor for the Red Cross (he planned on becoming a doctor) he was called in during the attack and treated civilians hurt by the Japanese bombs. After graduation he started college, dropped out after a year and joined the Army. He lost his arm and he won the Medal of Honor. In 57 years of public service he never lost an election to the house or senate.
ReplyDeletePeace is definitely needed now.
ReplyDeleteI don't always mention it on my blog, but I always think of Dec. 7 as "Pearl Harbor Day." When I worked in newspapers, it was an unwritten rule that we HAD to have an anniversary story every year on that day. It was a challenge to give it a different spin from year to year!
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