Seventy years ago today, the “day that will live in infamy” struck the United States and drew our nation into a world war that threatened security around the globe.
While that terrifying day at Pearl Harbor — a day whose scope would not be felt again until perhaps Sept. 11, 2011 — inspired fear, it also inspired what we now call the “greatest generation” to action.
The attack on Peark Harbor awakened ordinary people — farmers and teachers and steelworkers — to fight oppression around the globe.
Today, the veterans of that war — those who fought overseas and those who kept the home fires burning — are dying at an alarming rate. It has been so long since the attack on Pearl Harbor that a survivors association has had to disband this year because so few are left with us.
So many decades removed from that terrible day that inspired such amazing sacrifices, we are mired, it seems, in a battle against ourselves as we struggle to overcome a massive recession and inaction in Washington.
Perhaps today’s economic mess would improve if today’s generation of farmers and teachers and steelworkers banded together for the betterment of our country.
It is our turn to repay the debt of our greatest generation.