They are nearly gone, the brave men and women of our armed forces who endured that terrible attack on our naval installation at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on Sunday the 7th of December 1941. A few survivors still attend the annual memorial ceremony on the exposed bridge of the sunken battleship Arizona, but it won’t be very long before they are all gone–as will be the case with all of those who served in the Second World War. My family members who served during that war are gone now, except for my uncle, Sam Sadie, United States Marine Corps 1943 -1946. My uncle Sam will celebrate his100th birthday two weeks from today, on 22 December. He’s a little frail now, needs help most of the day, but his mind is sound. He loves his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees, watches as many games as he can, and still makes wisecracks when something clever strikes him. And uncle Sam remembers December 7, 1941. He remembers Pearl Harbor.
Uncategorized
Veterans Day 2025
A smart, snappy salute to all who served in our Armed Forces. Today belongs to you.
You have earned the respect and gratitude of all of your countrymen. And you have my personal and unreserved respect. I am glad to have been counted among you although I can honestly say that my own service during the Cold War and into the Vietnam Era was largely unremarkable. I am grateful for all those great GIs who served before my time (WWI, WWII, Korea) and for those superb warriors who came after me (Afghanistan, Iraq, and across the Middle East). I include all of you who have served in many other locations from Europe to the Far East, taking on thankless and often hazardous duties. We honor you.
You have kept us safe, and made the world a better place despite global political controversies, domestic disputes and flawed foreign policies, and at times even in the face of fickle and sometimes grudging support from some of your own countrymen. You stood fast, and stayed true to your oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” We are better for it as a nation, and we owe that to you.
God bless all of you, Veterans, and God bless the United States of America.
With the highest esteem,
SP5 Richard L. Marrash, United States Army, 1961 – 1965
George Washington’s Warnings
President George Washington warned in his 1796 Farewell Address about dangers that lay ahead for the US – warnings that seem startlingly contemporary and relevant 229 years later. I have republished below the article by Robert A. Strong, which first appeared in THE CONVERSATION, September 8, 2025 8:00am EDT.
(Please note: There are live links to many of the documents and issues mentioned in the article. Unfortunately, I could not get the hyperlinks to show in color, but if you hover your cursor over the point that interests you, it will show that the link is live.)
George Washington’s worries are coming true
Robert A. Strong, University of Virginia
The United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the country’s founding document, in 2026. Twenty years later, America will celebrate the 250th anniversary of President George Washington’s Farewell Address, which was published on Sept. 19, 1796.
The two documents are the bookends of the American Revolution. That revolution began with the inspirational language of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote much of the Declaration of Independence; it ended with somber warnings from Washington, the nation’s first president.
After chairing the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and serving eight years as president, Washington announced in a newspaper essay that he would not seek another term and would return to his home in Mount Vernon. The essay was later known as the “Farewell Address.”
Washington began his essay by observing that “choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene” while “patriotism does not forbid it.” The new nation would be fine without his continued service.
But Washington’s confidence in the general health of the union was tempered by his worries about dangers that lay ahead – worries that seem startlingly contemporary and relevant 229 years later.
Focus on the domestic
Washington’s Farewell Address is famous for the admonitions “to steer clear of permanent alliances” and to resist the temptation to “entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition.”
Important as those warnings are, they are not the main topic of Washington’s message.
During the four decades that I have taught the Farewell Address in classes on American government, I have urged my students to set aside the familiar issues of foreign policy and isolationism and to read the address for what it says about the domestic challenges confronting America.
Those challenges included partisanship, parochialism, excessive public debt, ambitious leaders who could come to power playing off our differences, and a poorly informed public who might sacrifice their own liberties to find relief from divisive politics.
Washington’s address lacks Jefferson’s idealism about equality and inalienable rights. Instead, it offers the realistic assessment that Americans are sometimes foolish and make costly political mistakes.
Rule by ‘ambitious, and unprincipled men’
Partisanship is the primary problem for the American republic, according to Washington.
“It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration,” he wrote. Partisanship “agitates the community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection” and can open “the door to foreign influence and corruption.”
Though political parties, Washington observes, “may now and then answer popular ends,” they can also become “potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
Washington’s fear that partisanship could lead to destruction of the Constitution and to the rule of “ambitious, and unprincipled men” was so important to him that he felt compelled to repeat the warning more than once in the Farewell Address.
Politicians’ ‘elevation on the ruins of public liberty’
The second time Washington takes it up, he says that “the disorders and miseries” of partisanship may “gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.”
Sooner or later, he writes, “the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”
So why not outlaw parties and rein in the dangers of partisanship?
Washington observes that this is not possible. The spirit of party “is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.”
Americans naturally collect themselves into groups, factions, interests and parties because that’s what human beings do. It’s easier to be connected to local communities, states or regions of the country than to a large and diverse nation; even though that large and diverse nation is, by Washington’s assessment, essential to the security and success of all.
The central problem in American politics is not a matter of devious leaders, foreign intrigue or sectional rivalries — things that will always exist.
The problem, Washington warned, lies with the people.
Excesses of partisanship
By their nature, people divide themselves into groups and then, if not careful, find those divisions used and abused by individual leaders, foreign interests and “artful and enterprising” minorities.
Political parties are dangerous, but can’t be eliminated. According to some people, Washington observes, the competition between parties might serve as a check on the powers of government.
“Within certain limits,” Washington acknowledges, “this is probably true.” But even if the battles between political parties sometimes have a useful purpose, Washington worried about the excesses of partisanship.
Partisanship is like “a fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest instead of warming it should consume.”
Where is America today? Warmed by the fires of partisanship or consumed by the bursting of flames? George Washington suggested that provocative question more than two centuries ago on Sept. 19, 1796. It’s still worth asking.
Robert A. Strong, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Washington and Lee University; Senior Fellow, Miller Center, University of Virginia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Voodoo Medicine
I’m making a very brief post today. I simply want to bring to your attention the attached essay by Dannagal Young published in the Opinion section of today’s edition of the New York Times. The writer recounts her personal experience as someone who out of desperation tried everything to cure the pernicious brain cancer that afflicted her husband, including misguided remedies. The latter were offered by those dismissive of scientific medicine and, not surprisingly, were totally ineffective. I suppose Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA initiatives to disparage vaccine therapies and defund important NIH and CDC research are driving or encouraging the public’s return to a time when superstitious practices were accepted ways to cure disease. To quote the writer:
“I see what MAHA is offering. It’s not really about making America healthy. It’s about giving people the illusion of agency in a complicated and scary world.“
Take the time to read the essay; it’s worth it, if only to provide a moment to pause and think about what is happening to our public understanding of science and its methodology.
This article is a cautionary tale, sorely needed today. It recalls to my mind a similar grasping for a magic cure for cancer back in the 1970s and ‘80s when people began touting treatment with Laetrile (some substance found in apricot or peach pits, if I remember correctly.) When it was debunked here in the USA, some people went out of country and began visiting a variety of charlatans in Mexico, who claimed they could cure cancer… and cheaply! No cure ever took place by using Laetrile, but the deaths of the patients did, i. e. cancer doesn’t give a sorcerer’s damn about religious rituals or conspiracy theories, it just keeps rolling along. Only continuous scientific and medical research—yes, some of it funded by Big Pharma (for those “in-a-perfect-world” types who feel they absolutely must point that out) but most of it depending on government funding—will solve the incredibly complex puzzles of the human body. Not by saying, “Abra Cadabra” or putting the tail of a newt under the patient’s pillow, but by slow, methodical application of scientific method. That the people of this nation appear to be sliding back into some form of pre-modern superstition (where science and medicine are reviled while Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his anti-science allies are allowed to destroy the bastions of the most advanced medical research on this planet) shows, to an astonishing degree, the colossal, cataclysmic ignorance in our public discourse and its elevation as our national standard for modern healthcare.
Operation Overlord-Epilogue
For those who have previously read and commented on my D-Day posts, I offer my somber greeting on this annual memorial to the patriotic men and women of the “Greatest Generation”, those who served across the world in our armed forces as well as the civilians at home who stepped up to manufacture the war machines necessary for victory in World War Two. America was a nation united, not by ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation, but rather by a public culture of genuine belief in the worth and dignity of every human being and the liberal values embodied in our Constitution, laws, and social norms. And they possessed the willingness to make any sacrifice to preserve those values. For that, they willingly went abroad to fight and die to deter and defeat the tyrannical plague of Nazism and fascism that had spread across Europe and the Far East, and threatened to engulf the entire world in a vicious and racist authoritarian blight, cynically punishing freedom of thought and expression and individual liberty unhampered by any effective opposition. The latter had been eliminated through the mechanisms of propaganda based on dissemination and continuous repetition of lies, half-truths, disinformation, dehumanization of opponents, along with the weaponizing of social institutions: the churches, the judiciary, schools and universities, corporations, and the media. The goal of those measures is to create a public perception that sees what the authoritarian regime wants the public to see, substituting that false perception in the place of reality. And only that manufactured perception–no matter how bizarre or contrary to fact–is hailed as truth and truly patriotic. Anyone in opposition–no matter how soundly developed and grounded in fact their position–is deemed an enemy of the people. No criticism of the regime or the Fuehrer, the supreme leader, can be tolerated. By definition, what the leader deems good is good for the state. The leader is the state.
That is what the Greatest Generation fought to eliminate from the world: the tyranny of authoritarian government, the loss of liberty and freedom of expression, the assault on human dignity. That’s what the Founders worried about, by the way, and thought about long and hard, applying the grim lessons of European history to their deliberations. They devised a Constitution with safeguards against the unrestricted accumulation of power in the hands of an unaccountable government. They gave us a democratic republic, but they cautioned us to take care lest we lose it (Ben Franklin, 1787).
A true democracy can tolerate in its midst diversity of opinion and even that which it finds offensive. That’s what freedom of speech and assembly means. What a true democracy cannot tolerate is the insidious transformation of constitutional government and the rule of law into irrelevancies to be ignored or weapons to be deployed against critics.
Do you ever wonder if the Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves?
I won’t belabor the point any more. Memorial Day was one week ago, a day when we remembered the fallen from all of our wars. Today remember the generation of World War Two, who fought the ugly blight of totalitarianism and hateful racist policies that saw the murder of countless innocent people across Europe and Asia.
Remember the heroism of D-Day, 6 June 1944, the beginning of the end of the Second World War.
If interested, read my previous D-Day posts for other details.
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IN MEMORIAM (uncles, father-in-law, father):
George Marrash, US Army, WWII, DOW France, 1944
Tony Marrash, US Army, WWII
Sam Sadie, US Marine Corps, WWII
Louis Gramesty, US Army, 8th Air Force, WWII
Elias T. Marrash, Auto-Ordnance Co., Thompson Submachine Guns, WWII
Memorial Day 2025
Enough longwinded speeches. Enough artificial emotions. Enough manufactured poignant metaphors.
REMEMBER THE FALLEN
Remember why the fell, in what cause: Freedom from political oppression, from religious fanaticism, and from vicious and diabolical prejudice.
In Europe: They fought fascism, and the fascist dictators who were masters of “Big Lies” and deadly actions that turned most of Europe into killing fields for the sacrifice of the innocent to the false idol of the master race and other specious and self-serving myths.
In Asia: They fought to resist the falling dominoes of countries threatened by communist dictatorships and savage coercion into collective action on behalf of the state and the “people.”
In the Middle East: They fought mindless, violent fanaticism that knows no bounds, having defined the will of Providence as its exclusive possession and determined to bring all the world under its rigid theocratic heel.
They fought and died. They held back the tide of evils that continue to threaten us today. Indeed, those evils are gaining strength and spreading their poisonous atmosphere in every direction. The sacrifices of our fallen brothers and sisters in over a century of conflicts cry out to us to keep faith with them. Do not stay silent in the face of evil: lies, deceit, wanton aggression, and lawlessness.
REMEMBER THE FALLEN … AND IN WHAT CAUSE THEY FELL
Habemus Papam
That announcement provides an easy and convenient verbal prop for making a post. We have a Pope! With the news of the election of Pope Leo XIV as successor to the late Pope Francis I, we are treated to a novel turn of events. It happened quickly, between the first vote in the evening and another the next morning. White smoke in less than twenty-four hours! A surprise to all, baffling even the official Catholic punditry that closely followed and commented on the candidates among the Cardinals gathered in Conclave at the Vatican to elect one of their own to become the Supreme Pontiff. Robert Francis Prevost, American, born in Chicago, and considered a long shot for the papal throne, defied most of the predictions and stupefied his American friends and fellow clergy from his university and seminary days. Might this qualify as a black swan event?
Rather than finding his American heritage a hinderance, his fellow cardinals recognized his profound pastoral understanding of the global mission of the Church as an Augustinian missionary priest who had spent decades serving poor communities in remote areas of Peru. Although he grew up in Chicago, Illinois, Robert Cardinal Prevost spent almost two-thirds of his life serving the Catholic Church internationally, not only as bishop in Peru, but also in Rome when Pope Francis I appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. His missionary experience in Peru made him particularly attuned to issues of social justice, poverty, and inclusion—aligning him with Pope Francis’s priorities for reaching out to poor and marginalized communities. Colleagues point to his years as an Augustinian friar that emphasize his humility, collegiality, and theological reflection. So although he was raised an American (with dual citizenship since he became a Peruvian citizen in 2015), Pope Leo XIV clearly represents the global commitment of the Church and the sharp focus on social justice promoted by his papal namesake, Pope Leo XIII.
When he emerged from behind the curtains and stepped forward on the loggia to greet the throngs of Catholic (and, of course, many non-Catholic) well-wishers, he spoke in Italian: La Pace Sia Con Tutti Voi! “Peace be with all of you!”
He went on to stress unity, dialogue, and missionary evangelization, and he invoked the blessing of his predecessor, Pope Francis. “This is the peace of the Risen Christ: a disarmed peace, a disarming peace, humble and persevering, it comes from God, God who loves us all unconditionally.” His speech reflected themes of humility, perseverance, and God’s unconditional love. Love … isn’t that an idea that we overlook these days? Don’t we tend to find it hard to love those that are not just like us? Don’t we prefer to denounce them for their difference, to eject them from our presence? We can’t abide their poverty, their otherness, and so we ignore their human need for compassion, dignity, and justice. Despite all that we profess about our integrity, our ethics, our compassionate society, we thrust them away from us and treat them as human rubbish. I say this in defense of humanity, not criminality. The latter must be dealt with by the laws that deal with crimes and criminals, and apply the appropriate consequences. But the former calls for humane treatment, fairness, and compassion, the basic traits of any civilized society that claims to value every human person as a child of God.
We should all take time to reflect on the inaugural message spoken by Pope Leo XIV, our American compatriot, and commit to expunging hatred and division from our hearts, to promoting mercy and the love of God for all of his creatures. You don’t have to be Catholic to do this. I’m not. And as His Holiness begins his pontificate, let us join him in saying: La Pace Sia Con Voi! Pax Vobiscum! Peace Be With You!
Corruptio Optimi Pessima, Veritas Autem Vos Liberabit
I don’t know how to begin, or what to say. All of us have seen the news. An incredible breach of operational security……by those charged with safeguarding the nation and its vital interests! What can you say or do? Those placed in charge have failed in the most elementary aspect of professional tradecraft–securing classified information (whether or not the word CLASSIFIED appears on the document or has been formally stated). Highly sensitive, mission critical information must be protected according to the required procedures and safeguards. Those are not suggestions. It is the law. If you don’t know that, and if you argue that “I didn’t see any classification notice” on the information or “no one mentioned that information was classified,” you do not belong anywhere close to a responsible position in the intelligence community. This security failure would never be tolerated in a new, junior member of the IC. It is catastrophic when it appears at the highest levels and among several of the heads of the most sensitive agencies.
These leaders of the most important agencies of our government used a marginally secure system, Signal, for a top-level discussion of classified information and even brought in a total outsider–a journalist–and were totally unaware of his presence on the discussion thread, while they went ahead and dumped restricted intelligence into the discourse, which should have been held in a SCIF (sensitive compartmentalized information facility). All while preparing to send U. S. pilots into enemy territory to conduct a dangerous operation.
As expected, the President has played down the breach, and, true to form, has attacked The Atlantic journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, incredibly, for being responsible for having been placed on the discussion thread. He was placed there by Mike Walz, President Trump’s national security advisor. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, denounced Goldberg, The Atlantic, and the media and claimed that he did not disclose classified information. The other members present on the Signal discussion dodged any responsibility during their testimonies before the Senate subcommittee that began looking into the security breach. Except for a few courageous souls willing to face the Trumpian/MAGA attack machine, most Senate and Congressional Republicans have remained mute on the seriousness of the incident.
So while our current Government denounces Canada, the EU, NATO, Ukraine, and cozies up to Russia and its wannabe Tsar Vladimir Putin, the gates of our security system are thrown open. Russian, Chinese, North Korean, and Iranian hackers, among others, will hardly need to break into the system to seize our most sensitive information. They can just get a Signal account and wait for the clueless amateurs to simply leave lying around what these adversaries are seeking!
It goes without saying that these lightweights should never have been confirmed by the Senate for positions of such grave responsibility. Too late now, but at a minimum, Walz and Hegseth should resign. The others should receive at least official reprimands. But none of that will happen. The administration has continued to denounce Goldberg and the media in general for concocting a “hoax”, Mr. Trump’s favorite tactic when his actions or policies are criticized. It is the classic play of the demagogue: deny, deflect, distract. Instead of attacking him, the government should be praising the fact that Jeffrey Goldberg pulled himself offline once he understood that he was privy to a sensitive operational discussion conducted by top U. S. officials! At first, he thought it was a sham invitation to the group, but when the attack was ultimately reported in the news, Goldberg realized that somehow he had been included in a highly sensitive Signal thread–a discussion where operational details were revealed that could have forewarned our adversaries and endangered the lives of the U. S. servicemen who were carrying out the attack. We were very lucky this time.
This is not the United States of America that I recognize. Like many others of my generation, and those before and since, I swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States both in military service and again in federal service in the intelligence community. I have never retracted my commitment to that oath either as military or civilian. I am bound by it until the day I die. I am certain that nearly all of my fellow Americans who have served their country feel the same way. But I am outraged and distressed by the reluctance of the White House and the Congress to demand complete accountability and by the irresponsibility of officials serving at the highest levels of our government. We dodged a bullet this time, but it must not happen again.
Whatever your political feelings, you should feel ashamed that we have come to this state of affairs. As Americans, it appears that we cannot even count on our leaders to protect our national interests. Their duty to do so is enjoined by their sworn oaths to the Constitution. To avoid any future disaster due to reckless, avoidable breakdowns in security, we must insist on complete transparency in getting to the bottom of this thoughtless blunder. Instead, we are being subjected to denial and deflection and the whining excuses of those who have shown us clearly that they possess neither the character nor the professional qualifications for the high offices they hold. They have demonstrated their woeful incompetence to the whole world. It is inexcusable. May God save the United States of America.
Lieb Vaterland Magst Ruhig Sein
I begin this post with an email exchange between Linda, and myself. Linda is my longtime friend from our University of Michigan days and a frequent email correspondent :
Read about the influencer behind the Tech Bro turn to the Right politically. I’d only recently heard of this man. Take a look.
Linda
“The Dubious History of America’s Most Famous Monarchist,” by Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times, Jan. 22, 20251
In a recent article describing the country’s progressive inclination toward oligarchy, I did read a reference to someone touting monarchy for the United States. Thanks for sharing this NYT article with me, Linda, it makes clear who that “American monarchist” is and what he is about.
The article Linda shared with me got me to thinking about some troubling current events, and I jotted down my thoughts as follows.
For my own part, the greatest threat to our nation is illustrated by the pardoning of the entire roster of January 6 insurrectionists. Many duly convicted of violent sedition and insurrection. This smug bunch and their affiliated anti-government militias, and similar groups and individuals whether organized or simply like-minded, have now become an unofficial, private army for Trump to call on whenever he feels the need. Remember his directions to the Proud Boys, “stand down and stand by.” He has empowered them to act beyond the reach of legal consequences by showing his readiness to pardon them–so, then: “Stand by,” America, for any future actions he will decide to use them for. Exaggeration? I think not. He referred to them as “patriots,” “political prisoners,” and “hostages.” But they are criminals, unquestionably, observed in their violent actions and words on TV screens all over the world, and subsequently convicted according to law. Yet, the President is even now indicating he will invite some of them to the White House!
In the 1930s, while he was tightening his hold on political power in Germany, Adolf Hitler had his Sturmabteilung (SA), popularly known as the Brown Shirts, thugs wearing swastikas, who went around harassing and beating those who opposed him and his Nazi party. We have just experienced the first step in that direction.2 Count on the Trump Administration to push forward with its agenda heedless of constitutional and institutional norms. The Constitution and the rule of law apparently need not apply to Trump and his coterie of sycophants.
That Trump has a taste for the use of naked force to achieve his ends comes as no surprise. He is deploying thousands of active-duty military to the southern border and launching mass deportations of illegal immigrants. No serious person disputes that both ineffective control of the border and the broken immigration system have been for decades thorny, unresolved problems that both political parties failed to address. But at least a preliminary attempt was offered in the bipartisan immigration bill that Trump scuttled lest it interfere with his 2024 election campaign. Conservative Republicans as well as Democrats had worked on the bill together and believed its passage would have been a step forward and provided something to continue to build on. Trump, on the contrary, prefers to use brute force to make that happen. While only a couple of days in office, already he is aiming his ire and vindictiveness at the institutions of government and the employees of agencies that have aroused his resentment for a host of personal grievances including such offenses as: DEI, wokeness, LGBTQ, and of course the sin of disloyalty of the various offenders on his enemies list. The way of the dictator does not bode well for the nation once known as the “land of the free and the home of the brave” where today the emboldened Executive Branch of the US Government goes forward increasingly unchecked by the cowed Legislative Branch and empowered by the acquiescent Judicial Branch. This nation appears ready to raise its outstretched arm in salute and shout, “Sieg Heil!”
Now, every time I think about the consequences of what these actions are leading us to, Benjamin Franklin’s warning reverberates in my mind. When asked following the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 what kind of government the delegates had established, he replied tersely: A republic, if you can keep it. I try to be optimistic, but I’m not sure we can.
[Note: the title of this post is from the German patriotic anthem, Die Wacht Am Rhein. The translation of the verse is, “Beloved Fatherland, May you be at peace.” I wanted to share the laudable sentiment, but at the same time let the German words resonate with a warning about the trend toward extremist nationalism that I have tried to describe in this post.]
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- The NYT article identifies a “prolific Internet commenter” named, Curtis Yarvin. The author of the piece summarizes his political philosophy: “The path to national renewal, Yarvin argues, is to unravel American democracy in favor of rule by a benevolent C.E.O.-monarch drawn from a cadre of venture capitalists and corporate oligarchs.” ↩︎
- See the guest essay in the New York Times, January 5, 2025, } “For Many of Us, Jan. 6 Never Ended,” By Aquilino Gonell. Mr. Gonell is a former sergeant in the Capitol Police and the author, with Susan Shapiro, of “American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy.” ↩︎
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AMERICAN HEROES WHO DEFENDED THE U. S. CAPITOL ON JANUARY 6, 2021
These officers and their families remain under threat by right wing extremists because of their testimonies before the January 6 Committee and current legal actions involving the insurrectionists of that day. Several have appeared on television and in the newspapers to bear witness to the “criminal behavior” of those who attacked and brutalized them and their colleagues defending the U. S. Capitol. Obviously, I can’t mention here all of the names of the dozens of Capitol Police and D. C. Metropolitan Police who suffered similar violent experiences at the hands of the mob.
Harry Dunn, Capitol Police (Retired, wounded on Jan. 6)
Michael Fanone, DC Metropolitan Police (Retired, wounded on Jan. 6)
Aquilino Gonell, Capitol Police (Retired, wounded on Jan. 6)
Brian Sicknick, Capitol Police (RIP, died of wounds received on Jan. 6)
Daniel Hodges, DC Metropolitan Police (Wounded on Jan. 6)
Steven Sund, Capitol Police chief, (Scapegoated, resigned under pressure)
Pearl Harbor Day
It’s automatic. It’s visceral. Every December 7th, I remember, as do most Americans of my generation–born when World War Two swept in and seized America by the throat–that fateful Sunday morning in 1941 when the world burst into flames. No, I wasn’t there, but throughout my childhood in the 1940s, we learned at home, in school, in the neighborhood about the stealthy Japanese attack on our naval base in the Hawaiian Islands, that dreadful surprise that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “… a day which will live in infamy.” On the radio, we heard the song, “Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor” again and again. And we followed the course of the war waiting for husbands, fathers, uncles, brothers, and friends to come home. Over the decades, the emotions surrounding the “sneak attack” and the sorrow over the losses have faded, but have not disappeared entirely. Few still remember, but mention December 7 to anyone over 70 and you are sure to get a knowing response, “Yes, Pearl Harbor Day.” They know the story.
I have always felt bound to commemorate this day, to honor the sacrifice of those who suffered its grim ordeal. It has symbolized for me the terrible destruction and death unleashed on a sleeping nation and the courage, faith, and resilience of the American people that led to ultimate victory over the aggression and brutal militarism of authoritarian powers across the world, not just in the Pacific.
I don’t think it is necessary to go beyond what I have mentioned here. This brief remembrance is enough, for me, at any rate. There are more details in one of my earlier posts, if you are interested.
Remember Pearl Harbor!
Richard L. Marrash 