Infamy is Fleeting

---by Micheal

President Roosevelt said that December 7th would be "a day that will live in infamy." He was speaking about the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7th, 1941. For a great many years, he seemed to have been right. People remembered. It was one of our nation's shared experiences, rather like 9/11 has become.

Infamy, however, seems to be fleeting, much like fame is said to be. A few years ago I noticed that the major networks didn't mark the day like they used to. Today, I asked people if they knew what day this was. "Sunday?" I even gave them the hint of saying it's a day that will live in infamy. They still didn't get it. One older man finally did catch on. "Oh, Pearl Harbor Day."

Maybe it's a healing process or something benign like that. Still, I can't help but lament at how much our culture is able to forget the lessons of its own past. Since we're able to forget history, we're pretty much setting ourselves up to repeat it.

For now, however, I still want to remember and salute all those men and women who died on that Sunday morning in 1941. The nation as a whole may be forgetting, but I haven't. God bless your families.