December 7th...a Day that will live in infamy!
The USS Arizona
America learned that no matter how far our shores are away from the other continents, we are as vulnerable as any other citizen of this world.
December 7th, 1941...Pearl Harbor...tranquil, sweetly exotic, laid back...Hawaii, believed it was only vulnerable to the vagaries of the
Goddess Pelé...before December 7th and the early morning attack by the Japanese Military under the code name Operation Al.
353 fighter planes descended on that tranquil paradise. 2,402 people were killed with another 1,282 wounded.
All eight of the Navy's battleships were damaged...
The USS Arizona Memorial
six of the eight were raised, repaired, and returned to service...later, during the advancement of war.
December 6th, 1941. The United States believed it could remain untouched by the dark stain spreading across the rest of the world...
but evil is never content to stop, and others will jump in when they see the success of another's evil to claim their own glory in the rampant fear and misdirection.
America wanted to stay away from the Blitz...away from the
vicious cancer spreading across the OTHER parts of the world.
Lost Innocence
December 7th changed that. America lost its innocence. America learned what it meant to get angry, but also what it meant to pull together as a
Nation, as a people, as the cornered tiger whose paw has been chomped.
Since December 7th, 1941, America forgot...forgot we cannot be a sleeping giant, turning a blind eye to the rest of humanity.
Our second loss of innocence came almost sixty years later on September 11th, 2001.
Hawaii, an actual island state, discovered being an island is no protection against the spread of the stain of evil...a lesson we learned again on 9/11/01.
This world IS our island, and every creature on it is part of the brotherhood of earth. The stain of darkness cannot be ignored just because for this moment in time it is nothing more than an
inkspot across some far reaching sea, because evil, like cancer, will not stop its spread if we do nothing but turn a blind eye to it.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed December 7th, 1941 a day that will live on in infamy...but until it actually arrives on our calendars...or we are forced to remember the same feelings of having our innocence shattered, do we really give much thought to the lessons we should have learned and held onto? No man is an island...no country is an island...no continent is an island...
Planet Earth is our island, and in that we are ALL of us earthlings, from the smallest
amoeba on...and together we are the ecosystem that keeps Planet Earth turning.
I find it strange we get all excited about finding possible fossilized bacterial life from a meteor of
Mars' landscape. We end up throwing all kinds of news conferences, cheering the scientific world on, and begin dreaming about one day colonizing the red planet while forgetting the lessons we have learned through life's most violent episodes here in a heartbeat of time later.
I was not even a twinkle in the eyes of my parents when the Japanese laid Hawaii low and crippled the Navy of this vast Country...yet I remember.
To all who lost their lives on that unimaginable day, may you know you will always be missed. To the many who died
in the vicious conflicts that followed...thank you for stepping up to stand proud and strong against the stain of evil.
For all those who perished on 9/11...I have this huge poster on my living room closet door to remind all who enter my home...I will never forget.
The Rainbow Bridge of all colors, all species.
And to my brothers and sisters around this planet...
God Bless Us Earthlings, one and all.
2 comments:
My daughter was born on December 7, 1992. She told me once she was humbled and honored to share such a historic event with every year. She used to argue with friends and others who said there was nothing special about Dec. 7th until she was born. *laugh* Her face would turn red and she's pull out the soap box! And this from a child who hadn't even learned about the conflict that drew America in WWII. She only had to listen to me, a history buff and her great-grnadmother who lost friends and family members during that time. To this day, she still sees her birthday as a very special event and not just becuase it's her day but that she had been choosen -her words- to share this day with so many others. *smile*
Once again, Lin, you've choked me up. Not everyone thinks of the other things, they only think of what's happening right this moment. In their lives. Saying 'it's called the past because it's in the past'. The past should never be forgotten least we lose the lessons we learned. But that's just my thoughts. *grin*
You could say the bombing of Pearl Harbor was to the people in 1941 what 9/11 was to us. It woke up everyone in the country who had been complacent to the fact that there was evil in the world and took away the innocence of that generation just as surely as our generation's innocence was stolen on 9/11. Just as on 9/11, it was a quiet morning filled with normal activities and we were attacked without warning. The whole country felt violated. Thank you for once again making it real by your photos and sadly the analogy is too close. I know this event shaped the lives of everyone who lived through that day.
Post a Comment