In honor of the Anniversary of “The Day Which Will Live In Infamy”.
December 7th, 2004
"Every
Day That’s Since Passed..."
They
Saved The World.
Tom Brokaw made a second career
with his “Greatest Generation” books, a part of his life out side of
NBC Nightly News that had such a profound effect on him that it was one
of the main subjects of his "Signing Off" statement last week. There’s
a good reason why his experience telling their stories effected him
besides the overwhelming number good stories about the men and women
who served during World War II. Each of story is profound and
different, but all are about commitment, sacrifice and bravery. Since
World War II there have been countless books and movies, and there
seems to be no end in sight of stories that need to be told.
We’re fascinated about the stories of that era, the ultimate
conflict between Good and Evil, the last “Just War”, a conflict that
actually brought Americans and her allies together, the most unselfish
generation that sacrificed and gave everything to save the globe gone
half insane.
Each morning when I post the Daily News update on The Front Page of
The Fedora Chronicles, I place the news stories relating to World War
II at the top above the rest of the “Golden Era” news items (but below
site updates such as new articles written by The Fedora Chronicles
staff to give them the attention they also deserve). The reason for
putting the news items about World War II and the veterans who served
above everything else is simple, they deserve it and those stories are
far more interesting then vintage cars, Art Deco, Historical
Preservation. If it wasn’t for the men and women who served during that
Conflict and the effort on The Home Front, I shutter to imagine a world
with out them. I’m able to work on this website, the columnists and I
are able to write our articles and you’re able to read what’s here
(when you’re not shopping on Amazon.com or elsewhere this Christmas
Season…) because of what happened during World War II.
Those who served in World War II as solders, workers in the
factories, Fund Raisers, as spies or in any branch of the intelligence
field, everyone deserves our thanks and praise. Every day we should
take a brief moment to remember what happened on December 7th, 1941 and
what they did to save the world from itself in a brief yet horrific
moment in time.
The
End Of Time and Civilization.
For me, World War II may have begun the end of The
Human Race and The End of Civilization as we know it. The horrors of
that war, the inhumanity of the Concentration Camps of The Nazi’s
against the Jews, the use of Prisoners of War as slave labor by the
Japanese, even the internment of Japanese-Americans by the United
States and the race for the Atomic Bomb which was used as a necessary
Evil by Harry Truman to bring a swift end to the Conflict in The
Pacific… all are examples that maybe the human race has gone too far.
In many ways we’ve gone too far, too fast and in too many of the wrong
directions… in the search of technological advances for the sake of
“Civilization”, we’ve for got how to be civilized.
No doubt we have made advances in areas of science
and medicine, we’ve sent probes into space and men have landed on the
moon. We have worked hard to bridge the gaps that divide us such as
ethnicity gender, and beliefs. But while one half of the world is going
forward, the other half is heading back to the stone-age while
insisting we go back with them or the consequences is murder and terror.
We seem to be hell bent on finding new reasons to
hate after trying to mend the crimes of ethnic divisions; men and women
who have been friends for ages have closed each other off because of
political ideology. If not political ideology, then religion versus
secularism or class division. We’re all guilty of trying to simplify
the world into “Us” and “Them”, a mindset that caused the Second World
War in the first place.
I doubt the world as it is now with its cynicism and
it’s love of conspiracy theories would ever be able to unite again
under similar circumstances of World War II. We want to believe the
worst in our leaders, and some how because of our progress and wealth
we allow our selves to falsely believe that any terrorist attack that
occurs is somehow our fault and we’ve brought it on ourselves.
I have my doubts there could be another “Greatest
Generation”, but that’s one of the many reasons why we have to push
even harder to remember the lessons of World War II. Now more then ever
do we need to remember.
The
Lessons of World War II Are Still Worth Learning Today.
Getting back to Tom Brokaw and his “Greatest
Generation” books, why were they so popular? As I’ve said before, those
stories are worth telling, the best stories ever told since The Bible.
The reasons are the same when asked why do some of us still dress much
the same as if it’s still the 1930’s and 1940’s (and I plan to continue
to do so well into the 2030’s and 2040’s) and why there are so many
reenactors who spend great deals of money on the uniform reproductions?
It’s the most heroic period in our Worlds history in recent memory and
we desperately want to be a part of it in some small way. In that era,
almost everyone was a hero; everyone was part of the grand epic of
saving the Earth from domination of fascists or total destruction.
When we’re obsessed with the esthetics of the era,
we for get the major lessons of that era and what happened. Why did
World War II happen? What could have been done to prevent it and what
could we do to prevent another such conflict in the world? Those are
the lessons we should focus on from time to time.
We should also remember the progress that we’ve made
in the years after World War II, the science, the medicine and the
civil rights that helped the nation and the world to live up to the
promise of the Constitution and The Bill Of Rights. We’re given every
reason to put an end of cynicism, a reason to get involved at every
level to prevent what happened then from ever happening again.
Most importantly we should never forget the
sacrifice of those who served in World War II and those who never came
home. They taught us that there are more important things then our
selves. Since that day, they saved the world. Some gave a little, some
gave a lot... some gave everything and never came home. We thank you.