Infamy

"A day that will live in infamy..."

When it comes to "holidays" that have to do with war, I try to step back from the flag waving and blind nationalism and consider for a moment the many lives that were rocked by the violence of nations.

Today I think of Pearl Harbor. I think of hundreds of thousands of Europeans whose lives had existed in various states of terror for years by that December day. I think of a nation debating the necessity of foreign entanglement. I think of men in burning, sinking ships as well as men storming island beaches and dying far from the arms of the families that loved them. I think of communities decimated by a single nuclear bomb and generations plagued by radiation poisoning.

There are too many days in our world's history that live in infamy. Too many. In remembering those of the past, may we ever be working toward making sure that there aren't any more. That our children and their children might someday not need a holiday to recall our vast capacity for cruelty and pain but rather to celebrate our equally vast potential for compassion.