Remembering Pearl Harbor

Good evening all,

It is a bit late, however I am a bit perturbed. I have not seen one article on Pearl Harbor today or anything related.

Maybe the volcano in Hawaii is distracting people, I do not know. 

This is the day that is suppose to live in infamy, yet a bunch of crickets on the news sites. 

I have been busy so I was thinking maybe I just missed something, but it wasn’t until I did the internet search did anything begin to pop up on my phone. (yes, I read tons of news on my phone, about the only reason I have one). I read on the way to work on the train and there was nothing then or on the way home.

Makes me sad. We have to remember days like these to help us understand why supporting Ukraine is so important.

If anything I hope this post spurs a moment of silence or reflection. Three thousand people died in that attack, one being my great uncle so I always want to stop and remember for a moment. 

Freedom is not free least we forget (and yes that is a quote hard to actual attribute to the original person, but I found two sources that say Colonel Walter Hitchcock of the New Mexico Military Institute). The saying is important, but better if you remember what it means than the words.

Our country is not 250 years old, yet currently we have a profound impact on the world. We should stop and take stock of who we are and what we have done. Are we perfect, no! Yet if we continue to make ourselves better we can have an even more and better impact on this planet. 

Someone in your family somewhere at sometime made the great sacrifice for you to live here and enjoy this country and everything it stands for so do not forget. 

Take a moment to think of your loved ones, your family, your friends and what they mean to you. Take a moment to think of all the opportunity you have because someone somewhere did something for you. 

Yes some days are hard and some people make it easy to complain about them, yet overall the vast majority of you that can read this post are sitting somewhere comfortable, probably somewhat warm, and have a bit of food in you. There are hundreds of millions if not a billion or two people who have no where near what you do. And all because a few million people over this past 240+ years sacrificed what they have for you and their family.

Pearl Harbor is one of those days we should always stop a moment and remember, not just for the horrible attack that happened, but because fighting for democracy is a constant battle and sometimes not on a battlefield. Appreciate your day, appreciate the ability to complain about our government no matter your political stripe, appreciate that others even though you do not agree with them still want this country to be better. We are lucky that are fights are over policy, while in other countries it is over basic sustenance. 

Maybe if we realize what we have, the need to hate each other can wain and we can get back to the task of taking care of democracy like many in previous generations.

Time for a moment of silence.