REMEMBER

Monday, May 26, 2008

It had been twenty-one years since I had been there, but a few days ago as the boat sailed smoothly across the water toward the USS Arizona Memorial old emotions came flooding back and I felt the same sadness I felt years before. We walked reverently around the memorial that hovers over the sunken ship where 1,177 crew members lost their lives. Those of us who are older were remembering. The younger ones were hearing the story as if it had just happened.

My mother and I had been to a Sunday afternoon movie. As we walked out of the theater there were boys on the street shouting, “Extra, extra, read all about it.” It was December 7, 1941 and the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor. That marked the beginning of the United States entry into World War II.

Many lives have been lost in war—and today we REMEMBER!