Tag: 911

Today still lives in infamy

December 7, 2025

December 7, 1941, was the day that Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was bombed by the Imperial Navy of Japan. Eighty-four years is a long time. My parents recalled this day every year and the speech that President Roosevelt made.

There are many days that we recall. For my daughters’ generation, it is September 11, 2001. For the Baby Boomers that are my generation, it is November 23, 1963, which was the day President Kennedy was assassinated.

The days we remember should not be just those horrible days that we recall from the past. They should be the days that we hold near and dear to our hearts. This is why we celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. I am sure that there are days that you like to remember in your life.

The days my brothers and sister, and I graduated from high school were highlights for our parents. Neither of them made it past the eighth grade. I was the first of us to complete my college degree. Later, one brother received his diploma in computer science, and our sister took a teaching certificate after her five children were almost out of the house.

All three of our girls have B.A.s, and one has her master’s, and another is finishing up her master’s program. Five grandchildren have completed high school, with the sixth due to move on in her education in the spring. The weddings of our girls were special times, and we celebrate the births of twelve grandchildren each year.

Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day are also dear to our family. Cindy’s oldest brother died in the Vietnam Conflict, and her other brother, a nephew, my Dad, and her oldest brother all served.

Today, we do not expect another attack from a country that we thought was our friend as we did in 1941. It is possible. Then, again, most US citizens never expected it. The military was warned and did not give it credence. Who knew Japan would do that?

Who knew terrorists would fly airplanes into skyscrapers? It had been years since a President was assassinated in 1963. President Trump seems to attract would-be assassins like honey attracts flies. With all the shootings of private citizens, would we even be shocked if a political figure were killed? Violence of all kinds is rampant these days.

Do not worry about what tomorrow may bring. Today has enough worries of its own. Let’s all remember this as a day when we pulled together, just as we have on other days that live in infamy. Thank you to our military personnel who fought these battles and continue to do so today.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger

Living history

November 6, 2025

When you have three or four decades under your belt, you start to notice what history is for your children and later your grandchildren are things that you remember firsthand. Mom and Dad knew about World War II as actual events that they experienced both here in the Springfield, Missouri area and for Dad also in the South Pacific with the Navy. As Christians, our lives are lived by what we learn from history in the Bible, but also from life as it is experienced.

In 1972, on September 17th, a freshman at Southwest Missouri State University experienced a historical event that did not seem like such at the time. The CBS TV series MASH premiered. This program portrayed events that were historical in a dramatic and comedic way for those, like Mom and Dad, who had lived through the period, and their children who had not.

An interesting thing about MASH is that it lasted eight years longer than the war it portrayed.  Since it was only once a week, that fact was never noticed. In the reruns today it is much more noticeable. At the time, the MASH series finale was an epic event. In 1972 when the first episode aired, nobody knew what to expect. The original movie was alright, but the series surpassed it.

In July of 1969, we watched the moon landing and the walk. I was six when the first astronaut took his ride and followed the other five on the Mercury ships. Then the Gemini crafts were launched. Apollo was next, and the catastrophe of Apollo One catching fire and killing Roger Chafee, Ed White, and Gus Grissom seemed to delay or stop that.

It delayed the launches, but it did not end them. In 1967, the first manned Apollo mission was called Apollo 7. Eight took three men around the moon and nine stayed in Earth orbit to test the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM). Ten went back to orbit the moon and tested the docking of the lander in moon orbit. The first landing possibility was Eleven.  

This is not mentioned by most commentators, but Neal Armstrong could have aborted the LEM setting down. During those last few moments before setting down on the surface as the commander, he had to make the decision whether he should attempt to risk the mission with a failed landing. The fuel in the LEM was at the point he had to abort or land. That is what makes a legendary pilot.

You may be asking, “How does he know these things?” I was a space nut through the sixties and the seventies. If it was published about NASA or the Astronauts, I read it. I was in front of the TV for every launch and live broadcast with Uncle Walter. You do not know Uncle Walter? Walter Cronkite was the CBS news anchor for most of my life. We only received NBC and CBS until the early 1970s.

Despite not having the internet, cell phones, satellite TV, or all the miracles of this age, we lived history. We witnessed all these things unfold before our eyes through the miracle of television, and we had real cats and dogs, without having to watch YouTube videos to see what was happening in our world.

We also watched in horror as the twin towers in New York City crashed to the ground, and our president had the guts to send troops to find the mastermind of that attack. In spite of all of that tragedy, he never once invaded American cities to make himself look good. He actually did something constructive without shutting down our government..

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger