A Shared National Purpose

At 7:55 AM on December 7th, 1941 in a mere one hour, 15 minutes, 200 Japanese planes killed 2,403 Americans and destroyed the Pacific fleet. The next day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a speech that lasted only seven minutes, declared this day a day that will live in infamy. Within a few hours, the second World War had begun. When I was growing up, it was common to overhear someone who was actually in Hawaii that day tell the story of the events, remark how that day brought the country into a shared national purpose. All of those people have now gone on to glory, and we are left only with our history books to imagine what it was like for America to be fully aligned for the same cause. On this Pearl Harbor Day, may we all reflect on the cause our grandparents fought for that was intended to bring forth peace and unity of spirit in our country and the world. This is Dr. Scott Morris for Church Health.