Seventy-three years ago on this day, our nation found out that one of our cities had been bombed by the naval forces of Japan. American lives lost on that day would have exceeded the number of three thousand. A nation that had been debating about whether to go to war or not, suddenly ceased its debate. The President of the United States rose to speak about the events of December the 7th being a day of infamy. Anger and then enthusiasm began to occur in the hearts of so many. Americans had been killed in an unprovoked attack. Action was needed and demanded for by most Americans at that time.
Those who hated our country did not have access to microphones to portray how evil the American people were. If they had got to a microphone they would have not been allowed to finish their diatribe. America was united in purpose and action. The flag was flown and being an American was a thing of great pride in the early days following that Sunday of December the 7th. Who died on that day? It is a popular thing in our time to designate different kinds of Americans. We have “African Americans”, “Mexican Americans”, “Irish Americans”, and “native Americans”. Who died that day on December the 7th, 1941? Perhaps you missed my point. Those who died on that day were AMERICANS. There was no hyphen, no separation, all were AMERICANS. They died because of who they were.
Dear friend, did it matter that the skin tone was different? Was it white, black, brown or red? The skin pigmentation was not an issue. The people who died were AMERICANS, no matter what color their skin was. When the towers fell in New York, the walls at the Pentagon and a lonely field in Pennsylvania in 2001, who died? What was the color of the firemen or policemen, or soldiers who ran to help the wounded and dying? Dear friend, it did not matter because of the over 3000 who died, they died because they were AMERICANS. There are people on planet earth today who hate us because of where we were born.
It is hate born because of the influence of television and Hollywood. Does the world really know what we believe? Or is it not the case that the world thinks we are what Hollywood, television and the news media tells them that we are. Why not go back to Normandy and walk across fields covered by crosses? Crosses indicating the burial sites of Americans who left families, homes and security to go and die on foreign soil to save others from terror. Why not reflect on places like Dunkirk, Korea and Viet Nam. Places where Americans died to save the lives and nations of other people.
Hollywood spends great deals of money to give the impression of big corporations making money off of war and soldiers fighting in those wars who were drug addicts or immoral people. The reason for the Gulf War was about oil and money to be made. I remember the Gulf War ignited by one large country invading a smaller country who could not defend themselves. It is not about oil, money or greed. It is about American military people who leave home and families to secure for others safety and to a small measure, peace.
As the President said back in 1941, it was a day of infamy. I see now a day of greater infamy. A day when four Americans are killed on foreign soil at an American embassy; when Amercians have their heads cut off in front of cameras for the internet; when American cities are burned because thugs do not like what a grand jury concluded. To me it is a greater day of infamy when we keep thinking that a person is who he is because of the color of his skin. It is time to drop the hyphens and pause to thank God for all those in days gone by who shed their blood and gave their lives so that we could be a free people.
There would be no American, nor us, without God. On this day we give Him thanks for where we live and I close this article and honor His Son and say we give thanks in the name of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, in His name, Amen.