EDITORIAL
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Opening earlier this year to much fanfare and reminiscing about “the
day that will live in infamy,” the movie Pearl Harbor showed the fear,
the surprise and the bravery that characterized Dec. 7, 1941. It reminded
our country of the heights we rose to in the days, months and years
following the attack. Those men and women, since dubbed The Greatest
Generation, charged through the Pacific and onto the beaches of Normandy
and then helped lead this country to world prominence.
And we’ve stayed there for some 50 years.
But Sept. 11, 2001 made the hype over that movie seem paltry in
comparison.
On that day, that will also now live in infamy, two planes crashed
into New York City’s World Trade Center, another left a gash in the
Pentagon. A fourth plane plunged into an empty field, a tragedy that by
all accounts avoided an even greater one had that plane hit its intended
target.
With the unthinkable crumbling of the Twin Towers, America had its new
Pearl Harbor Day. We have our new war. We have our new fears. We have our
new challenges. We will have even more.
And we most certainly will have our new bravery.
Tomorrow, the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor day, is the best
reminder of that vital truth. The stories from that morning, and the
stories that have followed, prove that America is as strong as its
millions of individual parts.
Today’s Independent offers a look at just two of those individuals.
There are many more out there in our neighborhoods, our schools and our
workplaces. We need only look to find reminders of what we have faced and
overcome.
As we rise up to our new challenges, it is right that we reflect on
these strengths and draw renewed resolve from them. To do any less would
be infamous.
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