Soap Box

December 7, 1941, as we all know was the day the Japanese executed a sneak attack on the United States Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii destroying much of the fleet stationed there, severely limiting America�s military presence in the Pacific.

Four days later on December 11, President Roosevelt and the American Congress declared war on Japan and Hitler�s Germany, and the next four and a half years would see America and its allies engaged with extremely tough and brilliant enemies in two theaters of war half a world away from each other.

The drafting of adult young men went into full swing, American industry quickly converted to a wartime footing, building tanks, planes and ships and manufacturing the guns and ammunition required to carry on the massive war effort.

The battles were bloody, the casualty lists long and heartbreaking and the news, many times dark and ominous with the American troops many times losing ground and having to retreat.

But, America was bound together by a pervasive caliber of patriotism in those days, a feeling among the population that it was not only the young men flying the planes and storming the beaches who were at war, but every citizen of the nation, who operated the assembly lines, built the machinery of war and prayed to Almighty God for safety and victory and went to bed at night, knowing full well that no swastika or rising sun would ever fly above our beloved nation.

There was a feeling of �We�re all in this thing together� and that America would fight, even if it meant taking the shotguns and deer rifles out of the closet and defending our shores from foreign invaders.

When I look around at our fragmented nation today, with so many factions, so many pressure groups, so many varied opinions of what kind of country we should have, the two political parties which seem to exist only to obstruct each other�s efforts, I can�t help but wonder if we could ever mount the kind of concerted effort it took to win World War II.

Is there any one event or series of events that could persuade all races, ethnicities, political persuasions and the media to put aside the agendas, the political parties, ethnicity, and prejudice and just let the American in us to come out?

I feel that it�s there, and although we run in a hundred different directions, fight tooth and nail to maintain our turf and have our side of things heard, I feel that way down deep in almost everybody in this nation, there is an American, and when we realize how much we need each other and that the only way we can pull out of some tailspin or defeat some enemy is to put aside our differences and get on board for the common good of all.

9/11 was a prime example, as a very scared and confused America realized just how vulnerable our way of life is, and, for a while at least, felt a common bond, a desire to give back in kind, to defend our nation by whatever means to make sure that such a catastrophe would never happen again.

What we have in this nation is special, precious and unprecedented anywhere on this planet and a very great price has been paid to protect it, and once we would drift far enough apart to allow it to be diminished by internal or outside influences, it would be gone forever, lost to the generations to come, and they would never know the blessing of living in the greatest nation the world has ever known.

God made us all different races, different colors, and personalities, different talents and interests, but we are at our very best when we all come together, one nation Under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Let�s all pause and remember the Greatest Generation, who answered the call on December 7, 1941.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, our police and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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