72 years ago, still, today.  72 years.

The day after.  Those who managed to remember yesterday have all almost most likely forgotten already by today.  Our flag still flies this very cold and gray morning.

Today we will try to finish decorating for Christmas.  Today many of us will shop for Christmas presents.  Today we will likely watch at least some football on television.  Today some might even attend a mass somewhere.  Today a child will be born and an old man will die.  The earth will spin and the weather will change or stay the same.  Today is the day after the day before and we rise to greet it in way not very like some of those that have come before.

Were you alive on 9-11-2001?  Do you remember what it felt like to be alive on 9-12-2011?  The world had changed and we weren’t exactly sure what it would then be like thereater.  But were you scared?

Were you alive on 12-14-2012?  Or maybe on 12-1-1958?  Do you know these dates?   Do you remember what it felt like to be alive on 12-15-2012 or 12-2-1958?  Again, the world had changed.  I became more fearful for my children after that first date and only have read about the other but still it brought me fear.  Were you scared after either or maybe both?

There are still those who were alive on both 12-7-1941 and also the day after.  We declared war on Japan and the world was not going to be the same.  It was a Monday and folks were off to work, off to school.  Millions of young men, I’m sure, felt the urge to do something and many enlisted in the military soon after the declaration.  Millions of families, mothers, likely began to worry about their sons and were fearful of what might lie ahead for them.  The world had changed and people were angry…and, I’m sure, very scared.

Those fears were all new fears.  All felt the day after an unforeseen and very tragic event.  Who had seen any of these, or others, coming?  And it was obvious to most, directly after, what the basis was of the fear that was felt and even what the likely response was likely to be. 

When a person is struck by another that person assumes a protective response and maybe even strikes back.  It’s a reflex action.

These days we have not arrived yet at a new day after.  What is happening now to us (to all of us whether you will admit it or not) is not sudden, it is not like a heart attack or personal attack from another.  It is more like a slow and spreading cancer and it has been that way for a very, very long time.

And how successful are we at ever recovering from such affliction?  How do we feel the day after we first learn that we are so afflicted?

And how do we feel the day before the day on which we die? 

It is a thing to consider for, in that event, there will be no day after.  No day after my friends. 

Wise up America; rise up America.