There are always a few momentous happenings in each person’s life that stick tight, no matter what. I remember my parents harkening back to the “big crash” when America’s banks hit bottom and began the great depression. When I was a little girl there were still some WW1 veterans around and with each passing, some of our living history faded away. It is the same with any war.

I was nine when the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor and the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt still rings in my ears as clearly as he spoke that day over the radio. I didn’t realize the impact of the situation because it was half a world away but the look on mom and dad’s faces told me it was grave. The lines of young men signing up to fight and defend our nation were amazing…….their youthful bravado called a nation to arms and the iron wheels of production turned out tanks, ships, aircraft and all the other war materials men use to kill each other.

There have been other wars since and bad times……unrest on campuses, the shooting of people trying to make a difference…..personal losses and national losses. Every soldier we lose on foreign soil is valor beyond imagination. If we could be that brave and sacrificial in the safety of home and freedom, what might be accomplished? We saw bravery beyond comprehension on 9/11 as firemen and policemen rushed up the stairs to help victims down from the Twin Towers that morning in September, five years ago.

They were able to save some, not as many as they hoped and were unable to save themselves. They knew that as they rushed up the stairs. They knew they would not be coming down…….and still they went. That says more about honor, duty and country than any history book ever could.

May they rest in peace…….them and the victims they tried to save…….

Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther