The Day of Infamy. Pearl Harbor, Dec 07, 1941. MJoTA 2012 v6n2 p1207
Aces
Museum is a hidden treasure in Philadelphia. It was the Black
military's USO, the last stop for Black soldiers before being shipped
overseas, the first stop when they came home. We are remembering Pearl
Harbor Day, and the Black sailors who were banned from having guns, but
who took up guns and cannons and carried white sailors to safety and put
up a spirited defense during the Day of Infamy.
Documentary on
this page, nearly 1,200 died on the USS Arizona alone, and are buried
with the ship at Pearl Harbor. In brief stopovers on my way to and from
Australia, I was driven past Pearl Harbor from the airport and back
again in early Nov and late Nov 2012. It is a holy place. And mind-blowingly
beautiful.
Dory Miller grew up in a farm and knew guns, but he
was hired as a cook. His bravery has been documented. I met Sergeant
Sherman at Aces Museum celebration of Memorial Day, he met him during
his days in the Black military during World War II, when German
prisoners-of-war were treated with more respect than our returning
heroes. Breaks my heart every day to hear about separate water
fountains, separate bathrooms, separate churches.
Since 2006, when I started MJoTA, I have found that I am welcomed openly in
communities inside Africa and recent immigrants from Africa. And not as
warmly by African communities in and from the Caribbean. And am
generally treated with great suspicion by communities of African
Americans. I understand why, and that breaks my heart too.
Persons who look like me need to apologize every day for the abuse and cruelty
and genocide we have rained upon the sons and daughters of Africa.
Every day.
A good place to start would be to lobby to redirect
money that is used to prevent unionization towards hiring more teachers
so that children born to teenage mothers and dead fathers have a chance
at becoming president. Because until every child has a good shot at
becoming president, we are failing them. All of them. And that breaks my
heart.
Because why did we even fight back at Pearl Harbor if we
do not care for our children? Why did our fathers and grandfathers die
in Europe fighting the genocidal Nazis and in the Pacific and Asia
fighting the genocidal Imperial Army, if not for the children?
