Tuesday, November 22, 2022

A day that apparently will not live in infamy

We all remember (or should) that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, "a day that will live in infamy" because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in Hawaii on that day, bringing the United States into World War II. The 81st anniversary of that terrible day is two weeks away.

Today -- November 22nd -- is a day that should also live in infamy, but apparently it does not. Today is its 59th anniversary and I have heard no mention of it. I remember it vividly. People can still tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing.

Younger readers, was it:
  1. The suicide of Marilyn Monroe,
  2. The Challenger explosion in Florida,
  3. The assassination of John F. Kennedy,
  4. The induction of Elvis Presley into the U.S. Army, or
  5. Neal Armstrong taking one giant leap for mankind on the surface of the moon?
This one should be easy-peasy, but you never can tell, given the state of education in the world today.

I just wish this blog had more younger readers. They're probably all on Tik-Tok.

6 comments:

  1. I remember exactly where I was and how I heard the news. I was teaching in the Arctic and when we came down at noon for lunch they told us that Kennedy had been killed. Our news was limited and we had no TV so we didn't gat many details.

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    1. Red, I was in the US Air Force in Nebraska at SAC Headquarters and also heard about it just after lunch.

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  2. I was in Algebra class. We broke for lunch (it was a split class) and it was big news in the hall at school. I can still hear the drum cadence of the funeral in my head.

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    1. Emma, I thought of those drums recently while watching the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

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  3. It's the only time that I can recall wearing a black tie when a politician has died. I don't recall where I was when I heard the news but I recall going into work the next morning and it was the sole topic of conversation everywhere. Oddly I specifically recall the supervisor of the second floor typing pool being very upset.

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    Replies
    1. Graham, we were glued to our television sets for several days and it was definitely the sole topic. We watched Lee Harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby in the Dallas Police Station., Jackie Kennedy walking in black behind the cortege, little John-John saluting his dead father's casket. Those scenes ae seared into our nation's collective memory but will soon be completely forgotten..

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<b>My new favorite poem</b>

...is the following one, purportedly by Billy Collins: Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House The neighbors'...