Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 

 Fortuitous timing allowed me to attend today’s wreath-laying ceremonies at the new World War II Memorial on the National Mall.

The booster-ific speeches were as bad as you might imagine. But they certainly didn’t matter when the Veterans paraded – still proud, but very slowly – around the fountain to the Wall of Freedom to lay ceremonial wreaths honoring the dead from Pearl Harbor and the other 400,000 American soldiers who died in the War. 

 There were two Pearl Harbor survivors present, and Mr. Frank Levingston was there, 110 years old and the oldest surviving WWII vet. He was literally and figuratively draped in the flag today, but he got cold and left early. God bless him. 

And all of us. The President had to beg the American people to go to war in 1941, until the Japanese Navy made that decision easy. Today, I’m not sure what “the American people” even means, nor what we want our leaders to do. Prevent all unpleasant surprises, but without high costs, intrusive surveillance, or racial profiling, except for Muslims, who should be rounded up. Or not…