Days of InfamyOn December 8th, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the famous speech to Congress that began, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy….” (Image on left is of FDR making his famous speech.)
The 25th anniversary of 9/11 has just past, with solemn remembrances of the loss and massive trauma not only for those directly involved, but for the country as a whole and the world. Truly it was another day of infamy: an even beyond imagining, never to be forgotten. At such times we remember not just the original shock and horror, but probably where we were and what we were doing. Pearl Harbor was before my time, but my mother remembered that she was having a Sunday night dinner with my father and her in-laws when they heard the news.
Another such infamous day was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Such shocks are written on our souls. I was fairly young but I remember hearing, “The president has been shot.” My first reaction was, “The president of what?” The truth seemed too shocking, but it was the truth.
There are also such shocks for private events. I was in bed about 3:00 a. m. when my sister called to say that our father had just died of a sudden unexpected heart attack. The Mayhem Consultant was driving when he heard that Queen Elizabeth II had just died. She had been the Queen of Great Britain for his whole life. It was the end of an era.
Happy events don’t seem to leave such an imprint, though a friend said when she met a guy, a small voice in her said “You’ll marry this man.” She told the small voice “He’s not even an American!” He was Greek, and reader, she married him. <g> So that was a very fine remembrance.
There is pain in remembering such dramatic days of infamy, but there is also power in the remembrance, and the reminder that infamous days also bring people together to face common dangers.
Long may we remember, and honor those who faced those days of infamy.
Mary Jo