December 7th, 2021. It’s nice to start this post with something profound. After writing over a few thousand of these, it’s difficult to come up with something new to say. I won’t try for “new”. I’ll go for a reminder. Most of us think about the past or the future and just go through the motions of living each day. If there’s a single message in these posts, it’s to tell you not to waste what we have. We have this day. Yesterday is gone. Let it go. The future is an expectation, a hope or just a dream. It will arrive when it comes. Today is all we have. December 7 has a short list: International Civil Aviation Day, Letter Writing Day, National Cotton Candy Day, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and World Trick Shot Day. None of those events gets me excited. Now the history of today: This is the day in 43 BC that Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and politician was assassinated. I’ll get back to him in a second. On this day the “Great storm of 1703” hit Southern England killing thousands, sinking 13 of the Royal Navy ships and drowning around 1,500 seamen. This is the day in 1868 that Jessie James robbed a bank in Gallatin Missouri and kills 1person. I always thought of Jessie as a robin hood kind of guy. He wasn’t. He rode with Quantrill’s Raiders who fought for the South. This is the day in 1941 that the Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attacked the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people. I think this was the last time America’s homeland was attacked by another nation. On 9/11 we were attacked by a group of people, not a country. This is Noam Chomsky’s birthday. I think he’s one of the smartest people to every live. Noam said, “Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It’s something you have to find out for yourself.” “He who controls the media controls the minds of the public.” And “If voting could actually change anything, it would be illegal.” As I said earlier, Tullius Cicero died on this day. He said, “What society does to its children so will it’s children do to society.” “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” Hope I’ve provided you a few things to ponder. Abide.
