An Infamous Day

An Infamous Day
By: Zach McCormick
December 7, 2016

Many have seen American flags flying at half-mast today and wondered why. In fact, Old Glory has been brought earthward in remembrance of the Japanese surprise attack on the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accurately asserted that this date was one that would "live in infamy".  On December 11th, 1941, the United States Congress did what it has never done since and issued a formal declaration of war against Germany, Italy and Japan (Axis powers).

The Greatest Generation quickly rallied and young men trooped off to battle in a campaign that would claim nearly a half million American lives. This blood-soaked conflict not only led to the downfall of the Axis powers but exposed to the world the atrocities of their respective regimes. The world experienced a new kind of horror when the unthinkable cruelty of the "National Socialists" (aka NAZIs) was uncovered in the concentration camps and elsewhere.

As with all of history, these events have begun to fade from the collective consciousness.
However, there are profound lessons to be learned from not only the conflict years themselves but in the time leading up to the war itself. In those decades, the seeds of discord were sown in ways that are eerily similar to the conditions today.

In an effort to avoid repeating mistakes of the past let us take a short moment to think about why our flags are flying low and why it is so important that we remember this infamous day.