Wars and Rumors of War

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of Al Quaida's attack on two symbols of American wealth and power: the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. There were observances and remembrances all over America.

Let them be the last such observances.

In three months, we will have the seventieth anniversary of Japan's attack on America at Pearl Harbor. I remember that day quite clearly.

Unlike September 11, December 7th was not remembered with a one-month remembrance, a six-month remembrance, annual remembrances and a tenth anniversary remembrance. We were too busy on the home front collecting scrap paper, tin cans, scrap metal, growing food in victory gardens, converting from peacetime to wartime production, freeing resources for the troops in the field by rationing most products, and putting everyone's shoulder to the wheel.

In the six months after Pearl Harbor, Colonel Doolittle led a B-25 raid on Tokyo, our aircraft carriers fought Japanese carriers to a standstill in the Coral Sea, and our carrier task forces sank four Japanese aircraft carriers near Midway, halting the Japanese advance. Before the first anniversary, we built a major army air corps base in New Guinea, started ferrying supplies to China over the hump of the Himalayas and the Burma Road and our submarines took the war to the very gates of the Japanese home islands.

In the meantime our scientists and engineers developed nuclear weapons and a way to deliver them.


Three years and eight months after Pearl Harbor, Japan surrendered at a ceremony on the decks of the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Three months earlier, we had accepted the German surrender in Europe.

By that time, the only celebrations we wanted to observe were V-E Day (victory in Europe) and V-J Day (victory in Japan).

No wonder I don't remember national remembrances of December 7th. A lot of other things were going on.

In 1947 the Truman Doctrine established a policy of supporting "free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Later that year we created the Marshall Plan to speed European recovery. In 1948, we responded to a Soviet blockade of Berlin by the Berlin Airlift. In June of 1950, North Korean troops attacked South Korea across the 38th parallel, and we came to their aid. Later that year, the Chinese People's Republic entered the war.

By the tenth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we had just recently defeated the Chinese at the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge. No anniversary observance that year, either.

We never pretended that Japan attacked the United States because they hated our freedoms. We understood that The United States stood in the way of Japan's imperial ambitions. That's why they attacked.

Back Home in Oriental

Just returned from a couple of days training in election matters by the State Board of Elections. Some new developments and some useful reminders of old information.

We may be in hurricane season, but we're also deep into preparing for municipal elections. In North Carolina, odd numbered years are for municipal elections. Odd numbered years also generate more election protests than even-numbered years. Go figure.

Intimations of Mortality

Some say that modern Americans don't deal well with death and dying. We avoid the subject, they say, and do our best to deny that it will come.

In an earlier time, death was an immanent reality, appearing in children's fairy tales, in childhood prayers, in ghost stories.

When I was three years old, I learned to say my prayers every night as follows:

"Now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake;
I pray the Lord my soul to take."

When you think about it, it's a pretty gruesome prayer. It taught children that death might be at hand at any time.

And think about traditional fairy tales. How many featured a wicked stepmother? Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel and many others. Remember the Miller's beautiful daughter who had to spin straw into gold in the story of Rumpelstiltskin? Where was her mother? She was apparently deceased.

There are also stories in which the father is absent and the mother is widowed. Jack and the beanstalk, for example.

Not only do these stories deal with death, they deal with danger and peril.

Do we still tell such stories to children?

We should.

On Working

Labor Day is a holiday honoring those who work for a living.  Laborious Day is a lesser known holiday honoring those who cannot stop talking about their work.  

~Lemony Snicket


This particular Labor Day is a good opportunity to remember fourteen million Americans who, in 2007 worked for a living and no longer do so because there are no jobs for them. Why are there no jobs? They have been outsourced abroad, assigned to robots, or abolished by the Scrooges and Uriah Heeps of our day.


This is not good for America.

Interruptions In The Natural Order

We just returned from laying my sister Sharon to rest in McAdams, Mississippi. Hers was a good life, well lived. But  it ended too soon.

I can only feel that Sharon's death interrupted the natural order of things. I remember when she was born during a snow storm in Oklahoma City. Her life was interesting, but anything but stormy. Still, in the natural order of things, she should have eventually joined our other two siblings at my funeral. I'm the eldest, so that would be the fair and orderly way.

A little over a week before her passing, our other sister visited her in the hospital and mentioned how much Sharon looks like our grandmother, especially her blue eyes. Sharon replied with a weak smile, "no, I don't look like Grandma. I look like death peeking out from behind a headstone."

She might have been weak and frail, but still able to share a bit of humor.


We will miss her.

Sharon Jeanene (Cox) Sechler: Jan 3, 1947- Sep 2, 2011

The last of our siblings, and the first Baby Boomer in the family, Sharon Sechler was a kind and gentle soul with an inquisitive mind. Born in Oklahoma City in 1947, spent her childhood in Anchorage, Alaska and Greenville, MS. After college degree from Mississippi State, including Master's in Education. Missionary work in Czech Republic, Mexico and New York City. Traveled around Europe and Mediterranean.

Leaves three sons, three grandchildren and a grieving husband.

She will be missed.

Connected Again!

The DSL link is working again. What a pleasure to be hooked up to the outside world.

Good Bye Irene, Don't Darken Our Door Again

Things slowly getting back toward normal in Oriental. Only thing lacking is DSL Internet connectivity from Century Link.

Everything else: Water, Electricity, Phone, working normally.

Kudos to Progress Energy. We had power back in the heart of Oriental Monday evening, a little less than 72 hours after the lights went out Friday night. Power poles were down all over the county. Don't know how they did it, but one thing is clear - teamwork and cooperation were impressive.

And kudos for the gang at Town Hall, especially the public works department. We did lose water for a few hours, but had it back even before the power came back on.

It was beautiful to see how everyone in the town pulled together. Neighbor helped neighbor. If anyone had something they shared it with others. Bama Deal's pot lucks under the tents were a great way to get together and cook up people's food before it had to be discarded. People shared generators, cookers, propane and labor.

That's what community and cooperation are all about.

It's great to live in a community like Oriental.