Greetings and salutations;
It almost seems like yesterday when I was posting a note about Pearl Harbor day…but an entire year has slipped by in a mighty rush. I hope that each of us will stop for a moment during the day, and take a moment to consider that day in 1941, when so many brave men and women died in a misguided attempt to keep America from becoming more active in the World War that was spreading, like Cancer, across Europe. I hope that the military leaders of today still remember the mistakes that were made and have learned something from them. Our leaders, by ignoring the intelligence data and the radar data increased the death and destruction by an untold amount. The Japanese command, by assuming that America’s reticence to spin up the war machine was a sign of weakness, and that by the destruction of our fleet they could wipe out any ability or resolve to wage war, seriously underestimated our reaction to attack, and so wasted many lives in that nightmarish moment.
The Internet hums with Viral reactions to items posted to it. Sometimes that item is nothing more than an image of a companion animal doing something amusing. Sometimes, it is in response to events that happen to another person, and, speak to us in such a deep way that we cannot ignore the message. One of the best things that I have seen show up is the sudden burst of popularity for George Takei. 
Back at the first of the year, he was a relative backwater on FaceBook, with pretty much only die-hard fans following him. As of this date, though, his following has grown to over three million “friends”. Why is this, and, perhaps more importantly, what does this have to do with Pearl Harbor Day, I can hear you asking. Well, in case you have been living under a rock, George’s burst of popularity seems directly related to his being in a Broadway Show stage production of a show called “Allegiance”. In short, this production examines the internment of Japanese-Americans during the War, how it affected them as individuals, and, how some went to serve very honorably in the military, in spite of their families being locked up in internment camps, behind high fences topped with barbed wire. These folks where yanked out of their homes and community without warning, and put in the internment camps with no trial, and no idea if they would ever be able to return to their homes. And, the really sad thing about it was that this sweep of citizens was not done because of documentation that the Japanese-American community was engaged in treasonous activities, or were disloyal. Rather it was done simply because they did not look “like the rest of us”. In passing I would note that the same sort of thing was done a few years later to the German-American community, as a direct result of Germany’s active prosecution of the War…and, it was wrong then too! The good news is that the show has broken records in its opening run in San Diego, and, is moving to Broadway now, where I expect it will do as well. It is an important subject, and one that we all should consider on this day that commorates the sacrifices made to save Freedom.
So, as part of our Pearl Harbor Day memorial, I would call on everyone that participates not only to remember the dead and how they gave their lives to protect the ideals of America, but, the irony of how we, through the Federal Government, so casually swept aside those ideals in the names of fear and xenophobia. Let us honor the memories of those brave men and women, and, use that honor to encourage each of us to step up and help America return to that Goodness that made it Great.
Pleasant Dreams…
BeeManDave