Day of Infamy

When does a tragedy lose its meaning? Is it when those who suffered its horror have passed or when a society as unaffected as ours simply forgets? December 7th, 1941. A day that our President proclaimed would live in infamy. 68 years later we seem to live in a society that has kind of forgotten. April 19, 1993. Waco Texas. The seige that fueld the Oklahoma City bombing. One of the worst American terrorist acts on American soil. April 19, 1995. Oklahoma Federal building is blown up in broad daylight. Innocent government workers & children are killed. The two culprits are tried in Denver and are sentenced to death. April 20, 1999. A day that parents & school kids alike watched in horror. Schools change their entire safety procedures. The country wakes up to the violence that is our children. Less than a few years later kids joke about getting high on 4/20, forgetting entirely it's the same day as Columbine. September 11, 2001. An entire country vowed to stand behind our President in the search for Osama Bin Laden. Changing Presidents (and parties) does not make this void, we still have a responsibility to ourselves to find this thug. August 29, 2005. A Category 3 Storm devastates much of the Southern region of our country. Aid takes days, yet our news crews make it down before the storm even hits. Reports for replacing the levie are ignored. Footage makes the storm-torn South look like a third world country. April 16, 2007. College students (who were middle & high school students during Columbine) watch in shock as Virginia Tech students are killed. College campuses realize that they too should have changed their emergency policies back in 1999 as primary education facilities did. August 1, 2007. A day we promised we would put more money into our infastructure to prevent unnecessary deaths like the I-35W bridge collapse. The entirity of the 2008 campaigns all but one politician wanted to remove the gas tax, money that goes directly towards funding roads, repairing bridges, etc.


How long does it take? A week, a month, a year? I still remember where I was when we heard about the Oklahoma City bombing. I was 11 and we were going on a field trip. My mom was chaperoning and we heard about it. She told me about what happened at Waco two years earlier. Before the trial began in Denver we stood outside the courthouse waiting for the light rail after a Rockies game. I remember thinking this is where justice will finally be served.


I watched Hurricane Katrina with my Mom & Dad, itching to get back to Minnesota so that the clubs & groups I belonged to could move into action. Friends of mine went down to New Orleans the years following to help clean up. I distinctly remember Anderson Cooper of CNN ruin his Prada shoes on television while reporting on Katrina. Aid hadn't come until three or four days later.


September 11. I sat in the cafeteria when our principal announced that terrorists had attacked. I ran home and watched for a few minutes with my brother before returning to school. We were asked to continue our day as if nothing happened. A few of our teachers let us watch. You have to watch history happen, even with all the technology we have there is something so important about feeling the way you feel at the exact same time that everyone else in your country is feeling it. It makes you feel less alone, less isolated, less individual and more unified. Makes you feel connected with your fellow Americans. that year Grandview Leaders Against Destructive Decisions sold firefighter gloves for students to decorate. We then presented them to one of the fire stations in NYC that was on the scene.


The I-35 bridge. I was working at Club Monaco and someone came in and told us. We had no clue, we went back and turned on the computer and watched the live footage. Many of our shoppers did not know either, and we informed everyone that came in. It was definitely surreal watching the bridge collapse when we were but 10 minutes from it.


Columbine - I remember coming back from French class in the 'trailers' and being locked out along with my other classmates. We had to walk around the building and go through the main doors. We were told nothing and sent home. I went to my friend Kayla's house and we were online when told about the shootings from a boy in a chatroom. We turned on the television and watched in horror. My Dad worked with two parents who lost children in Columbine. Shortly after they told me when they moved here in 1986, they almost moved to Littleton. That I would have gone to Columbine the next year had they not choosen to live in Aurora and send me to CCSD. We went to the memorial site a few days after my Mom and I bought the 'Columbine, Friend of Mine' cd. I played it the entire way there and the entire way back. The crosses were sad, but the moment that hit me the most was looking back and seeing the cafeteria & library. Eerily simiilar to the high school I would attend the next year. I kept seeing the kid who fell out the window replay in my mind.


Fast forward to July 2008. Annual Meeting at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I work for Northwestern Mutual, I'm an assistant to two reps. I look over the schedule, notice someone is speaking about Columbine. I ask to attend, ask my co-workers if they will attend. Two other assistants say no, they don't want to cry and go check their emails instead. I'm shocked. I go and I sit next to my boss, knowing I'm going to cry, just as I cry every time I watch a special on Columbine. The young man that comes out is Patrick Ireland. For those who do not remember, Patrick is the boy who was shot in the head & the foot and miraculously made it to the window before falling into the arms of the rescue workers. It is that scene that has stuck with me my entire adult life. Well Patrick came out and began to tell his story, and I can still remember every emotion, every feeling I did 9 years ago. I know my memory is not as fresh as Patrick's, how could it be? But I do know that it is more detailed and emotional than almost any other person in that auditorium. Is that what makes a tragedy stick longer? Because you were somehow affected by it in a way other than the television? Is it the humanization of the awful tragedy that makes it stick that much longer?


My Uncle told me a story once. He was out West on some business and his co-worker had rented the car. They were driving along and they accidentally rear-ended another car. Damage was minor. My Uncle's co-worker was extremely apologetic to the man. The man was from the Middle East and was very angry looking. My Uncle tells me his co-worker called the rental place to see if a claim was ever mad. None they tell him. Weird he thinks. Fast forward a few months and September 11 happens. The pictures of each terrorist is in the paper. My Uncle and his co-worker are in shock. The man they rear-ended was none other than the ringleader of the 9/11 tragedies. Had they known they brushed by evil that day? I'm almost positive that they keep the 9/11 memory more fresh than myself, who simply watched in disbelief as the tragedy unfolded.


I know that if you are in a tragedy and survive it will stay with you forever. But what about those who did not endure it, and yet cannot let it go either? What about those who had some small interaction pre or post that makes it stick that much longer?


I hope we all take a moment to remember those lost today in Pearl Harbor. May their lives not be in vain. May we all live and enjoy the freedoms we do with rememberance to their sacrifice. Let us also remember the sacrifice of all who have served and are currently serving in our armed forces.