Tag Archives: Peace

Remembering Pearl Harbor

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Living in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor is a Big Deal

Pearl Harbor, © 2015 Beth Terry
Pearl Harbor Flag flies above the Arizona Memorial in Hawaii

Living in Hawaii for 30 years gave me a different perspective on a lot of things. Pearl Harbor is no exception. So many people in the US forget about it, or, as one 20-something college student said to me, “Oh Pearl Harbor, that’s like a bombing or something that started a war, right?” Sigh.

I was dismayed back on 9/11/01, while sitting in my Hawaii living room to hear a mainstream media news anchor declare that “The 9/11 attack was the first-ever attack on American soil!” Really?

We forget history at our peril.

It’s fitting that a 74-year anniversary ceremony is being held today at the Arizona Memorial. I have met several of the survivors and their stories* still send chills down my spine.

We recently visited the Arizona Memorial again. It is a solemn and important monument that should be on everyone’s bucket list. There were Japanese from the Hiroshima area in our tour group, and they were not only very polite and respectful, one of them apologized to me for Pearl Harbor. I accepted her apology and then apologized for Hiroshima. We gave each other a little hug and went on our way.

Today is a good day to reflect upon and remember the ramifications of war for both sides.

Thank you to all of the Veterans who volunteer at the Memorial and keep the memories alive.  May God Bless those survivors and their families on all sides of WWII, and on all sides of every conflict today.

 

* Be sure and watch all the stories on youtube attached to the ones I linked you to. It’s a sobering front row to history.

Blessings,

Beth Terry

© 2015 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved

 

September 11, 2001 ~ Never Forget

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In Honor of those who died on September 11, 2001

Art by Public Domain Pictures.net
World Trade Center Postmark

It was mid-March of 2002. I had just returned from a speaking trip and there was a pile of mail on my desk. At the very bottom of it, the familiar large white manila envelope from my investment adviser at Prudential. As I started to open the envelope, my eyes fell on the postmark. It was dated September 11, 2001. Since I was living in Hawaii, and since planes and ships weren’t allowed to land there till about September 22, the whole mail system was clogged. We were getting FedEx, UPS and Post Office mail sporadically for six months afterward.

As I held the envelope, I felt chills down my back. Was the team who prepared this still alive? Was the person who mailed this alive because he/she ran down to the mailroom on the first floor to get it in the mail? It was an eerie feeling holding one of the last pieces of mail sent from the burning towers.

I still have that envelope ferreted away somewhere. I supposed the executor of my estate (hopefully 40+ years from now) will come across it buried deep in a box of memories. Since I couldn’t find it, I made a photoshopped version of a postmark (above)  just to feel that reality check once again. If I ever locate it, I’ll change out the image with the real one.

There are many world events that give us a reality check. We certainly are not the first country to have been attacked by

© US Flag by Beth Terry
Remembering 9/11

terrorists. And it wasn’t the first attack on the US (December 7, 1941 ring a bell?) More people die in car accidents every year than died on that fateful day. But the sheer shock of it, and the reminder that the world is not made up of fairy dust and unicorns was a wake up call for many people.

It would be nice if that old Coke Commercial by the Hilltop singers (recently brought back by the TV Show Madmen) could be true. September 11, 2001 and many September 11’s following it have shown that to be a far off dream. Why? Because, well, other humans are involved and some of those other humans don’t share our fondness for Liberty, Democracy, Peace and Freedom.

Take a moment today and remember.
Live your dreams, be happy.
The world is not sane, but you can be.

Blessings,

Beth Terry

© 2015 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved

September 11, 2001 ~ Never Forget

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

In Honor of those who died on September 11, 2001

Art by Public Domain Pictures.net
World Trade Center Postmark

It was mid-March of 2002. I had just returned from a speaking trip and there was a pile of mail on my desk. At the very bottom of it, the familiar large white manila envelope from my investment adviser at Prudential. As I started to open the envelope, my eyes fell on the postmark. It was dated September 11, 2001. Since I was living in Hawaii, and since planes and ships weren’t allowed to land there till about September 22, the whole mail system was clogged. We were getting FedEx, UPS and Post Office mail sporadically for six months afterward.

As I held the envelope, I felt chills down my back. Was the team who prepared this still alive? Was the person who mailed this alive because he/she ran down to the mailroom on the first floor to get it in the mail? It was an eerie feeling holding one of the last pieces of mail sent from the burning towers.

I still have that envelope ferreted away somewhere. I supposed the executor of my estate (hopefully 40+ years from now) will come across it buried deep in a box of memories. Since I couldn’t find it, I made a photoshopped version of a postmark (above)  just to feel that reality check once again. If I ever locate it, I’ll change out the image with the real one.

There are many world events that give us a reality check. We certainly are not the first country to have been attacked by

© US Flag by Beth Terry
Remembering 9/11

terrorists. And it wasn’t the first attack on the US (December 7, 1941 ring a bell?) More people die in car accidents every year than died on that fateful day. But the sheer shock of it, and the reminder that the world is not made up of fairy dust and unicorns was a wake up call for many people.

It would be nice if that old Coke Commercial by the Hilltop singers (recently brought back by the TV Show Madmen) could be true. September 11, 2001 and many September 11’s following it have shown that to be a far off dream. Why? Because, well, other humans are involved and some of those other humans don’t share our fondness for Liberty, Democracy, Peace and Freedom.

Take a moment today and remember.
Live your dreams, be happy.
The world is not sane, but you can be.

Blessings,

Beth Terry

© 2015 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved