Virgie Bell's View: To still remember

Mom sent this post to me yesterday, so I apologize for its lateness, but still wanted to get it up. Thanks, Mom! –dm

+ + +

I wasn't there that day. In fact I was only about 5 years old on Dec. 07, 1941. The day that lives in infamy and a day we remember the horrible and tragic attack on Pearl Harbor and those veterans whose numbers are so few. So many died as bombs and bullets rained down on them. I think it was on a Sunday.... I know it was in the morning and it was without a doubt one of the worst attacks against my country and the entire free world.

There were 2300 casualties that day. Young innocent people. Many of the casualties were civilians. Bombs and bullets do not recognize military from non-military. They do not differentiate young from old nor male from female. I suppose one might call such an attack as truly non partisan. Certainly it is indiscriminate. To my knowledge, none of the victims were guilty of any sort of crime. Oh, we had our folks in Washington screaming that we did not want to enter a war that was not our own, it was someone else's problem, let them fight it out.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the President and the Congress was controlled by the Republican Party. Polio had made our president become a victim the wheelchair. Congress tied his hands and my parents became members of the Democratic Party. We were still trying to come out of the Depression. We had bread lines all over our country and Hoover had been the third Republican president. My parents were always patriotic. This country and our freedom was number one for them. Our life too precious to let the GOP and its inactions polarize us.

My daddy came from a family that was blessed with plenty and my mother came from a family that was dirt poor. Two completely different backgrounds, but that old magic between boy and girl got them together and they loved each other the rest of their lives. The marriage did not last, but the love they found together never stopped. I remember the days then when my parents were young. The war was very much a part of my existence. We children were just little stair steps, one brother 18 months older than me, one 18 months younger. I was a boy’s idea of the perfect girl. I could climb trees and scuffle and I was no sissy. No one could accuse me of that. You can walk pretty tall and be mighty brave if there are three of you. We had our role models. Women took care of the factories. Rosie the Riveter was born into this generation. Our men were in the air, on the sea and on the land everywhere. WACs, Waves, nurses, and female welders followed.


Everyone was jamb-packed in those days. Los Angeles was one of the great shipping points for my country. We took anything we could get. We had three rooms and a bath. We had more room than some and less than others. No one thought anything about it. Our world was gripped in a war on terror. Our people had one aim. That was to survive or die. That was it. Patriotic? You bet. We stood shoulder to shoulder on that part and nothing could get in the way. So really in a way I was there on that day. The day of infamy. I don't remember anything before that time, but I was there then just as I am here today. The loss of life during that time was untold millions. The cost nearly crippled us. A Depression pretty much uses up every spare thing.

We come from the stock of families that dumped the piano beside the trail in order to take hammers and nails, and yes, guns. They fought terror then and we have never quit. We will always have this war. We have always had our officials in Washington D C in some kind of grid lock. Some are more one thing another thing. That will never change, but in looking back, it’s my opinion that the really wealthy are the best leaders. Those like FDR, from American royalty. He was my man. I cannot remember my life before him. I remember the day we lost him. It was a crushing blow to me and I was not yet ten years old. He never had to worry about an unpaid bill. He was able to buy the very finest of whatever, but for some reason he decided to help the poor people out of the Depression. He knew how because he knew how to handle an entire nation. We came so close to losing my country. We stood behind our military and we did whatever it took to do so.

In the end, we finally were capable of saving the lives of our military after the blood of our brave soldiers, our navy. Our air force was spread all over the planet. We did this after we developed the atomic bomb and only after we were able to bomb two cities in the country of those who attacked us and after we removed many citizens of the Japanese community. No, war calls for extreme measures and once we were attacked we fought back and our warriors were the farmers, the factory workers. We turned the plows into swords and gave life and limb. A complete generation was lost, leaving behind mothers and fathers, husbands, wives and children. We did not want war, we did not seek war, but when war came to us, we pulled together and we fought the fight of our lives so that freedom could reign. Can we do less for those who fight for our freedom against the terrorists of today’s world where even now the enemy walks among us, lives next door, in the shadows.

Today I remember Pearl Harbor. I remember 9/11. In my heart I know there is one that will stand and fight. He is a proven leader and he has seen firsthand the same thing in New York. To me there is no greater calling than for my leader to be willing to protect my freedom. I will leave it to others to judge his personal life. I just know he was there when our nation needed him.

I am for the G Man, for Rudy, for America's mayor. He does SUPPORT THE TROOPS!