Seven

HAPPY DECEMBER SEVEN!

I am thankful for history.  Today is the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  What images show up in your head when you hear the words Pearl Harbor?  For me, it's not a scene from the epic-length (read: horrendously boring) movie touted as a romance from 2001.  It's a paragraph from my 11th grade US History textbook and a clip from Tora! Tora! Tora!  Years back I mentioned to my little sister (God bless her) that it was Pearl Harbor Day.  She thought a moment then said, "OH YEAH!  ...Who's that again?"

Seventy years is not that far removed.  Yet, do we commemorate the way we ought to?  Pearl Harbor is but one example of the way we 'honor' a day in history, without taking a moment to recognize its significance and consequent impact on our history.  

To say history is important is an monumental understatement.  Yet our generation does not (and is not taught to) observe the things of the past.  The difficult things.  The low points and tragedies.  The victories.  The turning points.  How then can we learn?

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  --George Santayana.