A New Day

“Today,” FDR said, back in 1941, “is a day that will live in infamy.”

So you would have thought. It turns out infamy has a short shelf life. Not long ago, I was teaching a college class and I happened to mention Pearl Harbor. A young woman in the front row promptly responded, “who’s she?”

It may seem that simultaneous ignorance of both history and geography is unique to certain ill-informed individuals, but don’t count on it. Modern generations have as little connection to World War II as we had to the Great Depression, or the so-called “Spanish Flu” of 1918 (it started in Kansas). We were/are vaguely aware of those events, but other than being historical outliers, I don’t recall being particularly concerned that such things might come around again. Advances in economics. Advances in medicine. What, me worry?

World War II – that was a different story. I was and remain acutely aware of WWII. It was a deflection point in my family’s trajectory, and not for the better. I imagine my old man left to go to war with the kind of reluctant grit that most soldiers had those days – he was unusual in that he WAS an old man, by soldier standards, 33 when he left. He rose to the rank of Staff Sargent and at the end, turned down a field commission. He was blown up twice, cycled back to Scotland for repairs the first time and sent home after the second. He brought with him the spoils of war – some Nazi memorabilia, a handgun that I still have, and a smattering of medals: the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart. Everything short of the Medal of Honor. Like most of his fellow soldiers he was loath to speak of his experience. There was no such thing as PTSD, back then.

I watch the war movies: Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Midway, etc., etc. Remember Bridge on the River Kwai? I try to imagine what it was like. War is generally more impersonal, now, fought by computers and drones and robots. Twenty-first Century war. Small wars, regional wars, in mostly remote places. But the reasons haven’t changed, and the propaganda is still pretty much the same. The worse wars are still unchanged, those wars tyrants wage against innocent scapegoats in the name of peace, freedom, safety, faith. Coming soon to a theater near you.

So. No mention, anywhere that I noticed, of Pearl Harbor today. We have other concerns. Steve Miller and Steve Bannon – two extremely punchable Steves, to my way of reckoning – are included on the Times’list of potential Trump Cabinet members. Closer to home, Mark Robinson says, in his best imitation of a Baptist Minister (this is true), "I don't have to listen to those in my own party who have watched as my back has been whipped by our enemies, who refuse to stand up with me because they're cowards. I don't have to worry about it. Because one day, Jesus Christ is going to ride back to this earth on that white horse. When he does, he's going to bring his vengeance."  Why a white horse? Is that a convention for avenging sons of God? Why a horse at all? You gotta admire how Robinson plays both the victim and the vengeful true believer in a single sound bite.

DJT says he’s going to be a dictator on day one, falsely implying that he’ll go back to being a genial old man on day two. Sigh. We’ve been here before. As Santayana said, and Churchill wrote, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Some other anonymous wit has noted that those who remember history are doomed to watch it repeat. Maybe the past is best forgotten, or mis-remembered. Then we can be optimistic because every day is a new day.