Last month on Nov. 22nd, the 48th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Shemp Smith of Faucks News “informed” his viewers that the notable event of the day in history was… wait for it… that Lebanon was officially recognized as an independent nation.
I swear to God, my jaw dropped. No mention from the brain pilots at Faucks — whatsoever — about the day that changed America. Aaaargh!!!!
With that, let me share THIS with you:
Our friend Kitty used to blog on a daily basis at her now-defunct site Kitty Litter. She stopped for personal reasons, burn-out being a principle one. We miss her contribution to the new media.
Today she sent us an email, worthy of a post. So here it is:
I suppose there are many, somber ways to remember that today is Pearl Harbor Day. But I always flash on a scene in Woody Allen’s 1987 movie Radio Days. Mia Farrow plays Sally White, a blonde bubblehead who desperately wants to get into radio and somehow ended up with a big acting part on a very serious dramatic radio show that was doing Chekhov.
Now here’s the payoff to the story.
The country never got to hear her act, because at the last minute, fate stepped in. The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor
Which prompted Sally to ask, “Who is Pearl Harbor?” (It begins at 44:00 and lasts about 45 seconds.)
It’s a classic line. Most people from that era and mine – I was born in 1950 – can appreciate the humor because we know the history of that day. But how many people today would laugh if you asked them, “Who is Pearl Harbor?”
As I was driving my 9-y-o grandson to school this morning, I told him a bit about Pearl Harbor. I want you to be prepared in case your teacher mentions it. I wonder if she will? It’s on my NRA calendar but not on my Get Fuzzy calendar. So chances are the topic of this day will never come up in his class. The one question he asked me was, Why did we go to war just because Pearl Harbor was bombed? Our tax dollars at work. siiiiigh
Kitty
Oh and guess what? At the tony DC Sidwell School where the Obama spawn attend, on this anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, know what they’re serving for lunch?
Japanese food.
Here are the darlings. Think they’ll be told the meaning of today???
My youngest son, by his choice, knows more about Pearl Harbor, WWII, and what was at stake, why we went to war, when really the entire nation was against our being in the war, and why the Emp. of Japan stated the Obvious ” I believe we may have only awakened a sleeping giant, for which we may suffer its rath”
We have elders in our family who were in Hawaii that day that “will live in infamy” too bad he wasnt right, our public schools do little more than pass the kids from class to class with little more attention than you will give a fly landing on their food, and more often the teachers pay more attention to the fly than the students entrusted to their care and learned educational needs.
I am not saying ALL teachers are worthless, but unfortunately more “educators” get into their jobs cause it is easier to be an educator than to get a degree in other professions.
Thank you for your time and your comments on this day that many of us really do remember and FYI I wasnt alive when it happened, but I was made aware of this day most every year of my life, unlike today my education was filled with facts, and dates that we should all know by heart.