Cutting Off the Head of the Snake

On August 23, 1994, the United States Congress passed a joint-resolution (H.J. Res. 131) declaring December 7th "Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day." President Bill Clinton signed this resolution into law (P.L. 103-308)--a mere half century after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Why did it take the government so long to get around to passing such legislation? Well, for one thing, the number of World War II veterans still living was dwindling. There was no doubt concern that Americans would forget what had happened on that day in history--the Japanese attacks had killed or wounded more than 3,000 Americans.

Decades before the Federal Government acted to create an official reminder (not, however, a national holiday), I learned of the significance of this date in elementary school. My father was a World War II veteran. I knew the date and what had happened.

I would be surprised to learn that my education was unique in that regard. Back in the 1960's, we were taught American history in public school. We also learned that there was some controversy about what happened on December 7, 1941--specifically, that there was speculation concerning the degree of intelligence concerning the attacks in the hands of the Roosevelt White House prior to the event. Hearings were conducted and high ranking military personnel were found "derelict" in their duties and relieved of their command.

I was brought up with both facts and questions. I was aware of Pearl Harbor and remembered it annually--without the prompting of the Federal government. The tragedy was not exploited for political purposes nor was a fetish made out of it.

There is another reason that it took the Congress so long to officially recognize December 7th as an annual "day of remembrance." In the 1940's, there was an actual war going on in Europe, North Africa, and East Asia. There were real armies, navies, and air forces aggressively on the move attacking and terrorizing civilian populations. This is not the case today. To prevent the so-called "War On Terror" from fading from the memories of all but the most paranoid among us, it must be continually manufactured by our Orwellian Federal government in cooperation with its State and local allies and their supine corps of compliant journalists.

This is not to say that there is no real threat. Credible terrorist plots are being hatched every day in the Pentagon and at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. I'm all for "cutting off the head of the snake"--isn't that what the assassination of Osama bin Laden was supposed to do?

I've read Op-Ed pieces lately in which the author opines that OBL's memory is more dangerous than the man himself when he was alive--for now his inspiration to would-be terrorists is the stuff of legend, larger than life. Paradoxically, these same pundits support the continual exploitation and fetishization of 9/11 through "days of remembrance" like the present one. But it's no paradox, really: they are terrified that they might lose the only thing which supports their adrenalin addiction and gives their lives form and meaning.

The American people need to recognize where the true threat of terrorism is coming from and act to prevent it. Barry Glassner's classic work The Culture of Fear is in print, "updated for our post 9/11 world." When this book becomes required reading for every American school child; when American school children are once again raised with both facts and questions; if and when the conditions of democracy ever return to our shores again, the head of the snake will be cut off and the frightened citizens of these Orwellian States of Amnesia will once again experience the euphoria that swept the country in 1991 when the Soviet Union fell and all the Communist cells that were secreted throughout the United States bent upon overthrowing our government and depriving us of our way of life were thwarted...

By the way, what happened to all those Communist cells? They vanished into the thin, paranoid air from which they had been dreamed up in the first place.