Loss and More Loss!

Sunday evening, December 7, 2008 [way too cold for me!],
On December 7, 1941, I was shaping up pretty well and scheduled for delivery on February 15, 1942. Gosh, if I had known what was taking place on that infamous day in 1941, I would have probably ducked behind my Mother’s breastbone! The Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor and they were doing one hell of a job of it (or so I have been told; I think I could hear the bombs, but it might have been Mama attempting to crack a coconut, for all I know). Anyway, I think it is safe for me to say that America was completely surprised by this attack; if we were not, we surely didn’t act as if we were expecting it. As a result, more than 2300 Americans lost their lives, while serving this country.
On September 11, 2001 America was surprised again! With all the military might of the Armed Forces of the United States, it seemed that all we could do was watch and wonder how this could happen. On that infamous morning, 19 Islamic terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in NYC, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building. Both buildings collapsed within two hours. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, DC. There are no survivors from any of the flights. Excluding the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died in the attacks, while enjoying the American way of life.
As most of you know, very recently the stock market took a nose dive that, again, took many Americans by surprise. As in these other surprises, there was major loss, not in terms of human lives (though there were and continue to be some who chose the avenue of suicide) but in terms of a lifetime of savings. Many who were preparing to retire suddenly realized that that was now impossible. Sadly, this entire loss was the result of greed, or should I say GREED.
I don’t say this to make you nervous or to cause you to lose sleep, but I am pretty certain that America is in for some more surprises, surprises that will result in even more loss. You see, it is very difficult for me to understand how anyone who lives in this great nation can be so ungrateful. Sadly, there is a generation of people walking around on this soil today, people who have no appreciation whatsoever for those who fought to keep this soil safe and to keep America free, whose lives are completely centered in the cesspool of greed. Interestingly, most of these want and expect instant gratification and they will do whatever might be necessary to feed that desire.
We have already lost any sense of moral compass and who knows what is next. I hope you will give this some thought.