Pearl Harbor remembrance. Really?

 

 

Why Bother?
(by R.P.Edwards)

We say the words
We bow the head
Give mind and homage
To honored…dead
But distant deeds
Reveal the way
A speaking that our words…won’t say
The truth?…despised
Our parents worth
Yes, those who bled
And saved…the earth
But today we’ll speak
And feign our due
But actions prove
It isn’t…true

Sixty-nine years ago, today, the planes came, the bombs dropped, the torpedoes sped, the bullets ripped, the ships blew up, and over twenty-four hundred “defenders”…died.  It is on this day we remember, and honor.  But I contend, alas, that we really only do…the former.

Maybe it’s the--of necessity--overtime I’ve been working (yes, I’m thankful to have a job), or the plethora of weights that responsible men must bear, but, with my observation of society as it is, and the direction our “handlers” want it to go, and also a cursory knowledge of who “we were”…back then, well, as up-beat, and thoughtful, and inspirational, and patriotic, as I should be on this “memorial” day, I find myself in a bit of a funk, and my words will reflect it.  I ask you to treat me as the sometimes melancholy uncle who comes to the celebration.  “He’s kind of a downer.  But he’s family.”

You see, from a variety of sources (including my parents) I know that after the bombs fell and the thousands died in the Hawaiian sun and, during the four subsequent years as another four hundred and fifty thousand Americans died; I know that public school teachers led those in their charge in prayer and perhaps an inspirational scripture reading to under-gird the tender that would have to grow up…before their time.  Many, who, as the war years lingered, would also don the uniform, and then go stain a foreign field…with liberties young blood. 

And, as many in high places, even this day, clamor that the modern military accept and honor behavior that most of the near half million fallen would have found abhorrent; and, as, this day, the God to whom those heroes prayed, and relied upon, and anchored their rightness in; as He is forbidden from taking His rightful, foundational place in the education of the young.  And, as, this day, thousands of unborn Americans are ripped to shreds in a “free” society that owes its very existence to the generation that couldn’t imagine such bestiality (until they visited the Nazi extermination camps).  This day, this writer finds our celebrations and remembrances of the saviors, at the very least…disingenuous. 

So, in somber conclusion: if we want to remember them, to honor them, to recognize who they were, and what they did…then, let’s strive to be more like them. 

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Here’s a link to the video, “The Stone.”  A song and photo montage which honors “The Greatest Generation.” The Stone

Also, I’ve been a bit occupied of late with another work.  This one is for those of the Christian faith who find themselves…in the test.  It’s titled, “To go Higher.”  To Go Higher

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Pearl Harbor Day

Pearl Harbor Day
(by R.P.Edwards)

Busy, busy
Fleeting time
Pause for little
Seeking…mine
Rushing past
Memorial threads
Life for living
Forget…the dead
But now and then
From trials deep
From valleys low
With risings…steep
With easing pain
I see the worth
Of values born…
Not of this earth
And so a moment
On this day
Remembering heroes
Their blood…the pay
That bought my leisure
My selfish view
A simple pause for thanks
…to you.

“Red sky at night, the sailor’s delight,” so goes the ancient adage.  I thought about it on my mission last night at dusk which required a buggy ride (in one of our little steel mill transports) and an outside jaunt into the cold December elements.  There, as I tooled along, to the west, were clouds that had the appearance of cotton that had been subject to the cat’s merciless teasing; and they were red.  Well, even though I spent some time sailing the briny deep (decades ago), the saying never made sense.  However, one minute on Wikipedia cleared it up.  It all has to do with predictable weather patterns and the rays of the sun as they travel through the atmosphere at dawn…and dusk.  The “red skies” can indeed be a precursor…to good, or ill.

Today is Pearl Harbor Day.  Sixty-eight years ago the United States was plunged into a World War and the generation of our parents and grandparents was asked, and accepted, the task of sowing their blood that the hope of freedom…might bloom.  And, for us, their progeny…it certainly has.  However, it appears that it is again morning…and the sky is red.  We can try and ignore it; say it’s not coming; but the front is moving steadily towards us.  I hope a little of our ancestor’s “stuff” has been passed on.  We’ll see.  But on this day…we remember them…and say, “Thanks.”

That’s what I think.  How about you? Click comments below…and say.