Remembrance.............

There are days in history that divide in one instant what was from what will be.

Days like 9-11 and Dec. 7 1941.

Days that signal the end of one distinct era and define the new one.

Forty-two years ago today.......at about this time of day, was one of those days.

Ask someone near or over 50 exactly what he or she was doing that day......they may not be able to tell you what they had for breakfast this morning, but they will be able to tell you what that day looked like and smelled like and felt like.
I've spoken to people who were as young as 3 and 4 years old on that day.........it may be a hazy memory,but it is their first real memory.

In the years to follow that day, cities would be torn apart by riot, 53,000 young men would be cut down in the prime of their years, and a President would resign in disgrace, his hands soiled by the criminal abuse of the power of his office.

In the years to follow that day, we would land a man on the moon, make the first of many attempts to address 300 years of bigotry and heinous racial injustice, and set our government and social apparatus on a course to bring to bear the resources of the richest nation on earth in an effort to level the field for those born into poverty and ignorance............to give those most in need the opportunity to share in the American Dream.

All of it somehow connected with that defining moment.

It goes without saying that the best and most well-intended efforts haven't always been a rousing success. It goes likewise without saying that there have been mistakes made.........that at times the consequence of what was intended to be a cure ushered in a worse situation than existed before it......

........but don't let yourself be gulled by someone's half-baked, self-delusional nostalgia about the good ol' days.

Beware those who would take us back. Wrap a tea towel around Pat Robertson's head and listen to what he has to say.Our right wing fanatics would shroud women in the same veils and condemn mankind to the same pestilential, medieval, hell on earth that their right wing fanatics would......and do it with the same joyous, snake-eyed, and brutal enthuasiasm.

We live in a better nation and a better world than we did then.It is not enough to honor the martyr by remembering them. We honor them best by remembering why we remember them.


"Don't let it be forgot,
That once there was a spot,
For one brief, shining moment......
that was known as Camelot"

Thus endeth the entry.......