I asked a young man I work with if he knew the significance of December 7. He didn't know. I then asked him if he knew the significance of September 11. Of course he knew. He was alive when that happened. I was not alive on 12/7/41 but I know what happened. I know because my parents lived it and it changed their lives in astounding ways as it affected our entire country and the world. They passed it on to their children just as we must pass our recollections to our children.
There are few left who remember 12/7/41. Old World War II Veterans die at the rate of 851 per day. There were 2,402 Americans killed that Sunday morning in Hawaii. Thousands more were injured. It was the event that brought America into the bloodiest conflict in human history. Young men and women should know this and remember. Teach your children well.
On December 8, 1980, I was in my apartment in Roslyn, NY. I was listening to some music and had the Monday Night Football game on the TV. I got a phone call from a friend who told me John Lennon had been shot. I turned down the music and turned up the TV just as Howard Cosell told the nation that John Lennon had been murdered outside of his home in New York City. It took days before it sunk in that a great man who literaly changed the world through music had been taken from us. It is a uniquely human trait to remember vividly where you were and what you were doing at moments like these.
Every December, I recall the stories my parents told about Pearl Harbor. I Imagine a world where John Lennon is still with us. I dream about a future when no man kills another. Sadly, I will probably never see that dream come to fruition.
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will live as one" - Lohn Lennon
DD
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