<a href="http://judythewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/newspaper.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-6949" src="http://judythewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/newspaper.jpg" alt="newspaper" width="194" height="260" /></a>On December 8, 1941, President F. D. Roosevelt called December 7, “a date which will live in infamy.”

Indeed that day and the words of his <a href="https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/EastWind/Infamy.html"><em>Infamy Speech</em></a> <a href="https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/EastWind/Infamy.html">https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/EastWind/Infamy.html</a>   have become synonymous with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Within an hour of that speech, Congress passed a Declaration of War thrusting the United States headlong into World War II.

Roosevelt’s words had a profound an impact on our nation. Recruiting stations were jammed with surges of volunteers.

And, when WW2 war ended, the world was not the same.

Pearl Harbor was before my time. Thirty years after Pearl Harbor another event occurred giving us a new date we will always remember-- September 11, 2001.

<a href="http://judythewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NYT.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-6951" src="http://judythewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/NYT.jpg" alt="nyt" width="630" height="558" /></a>

My heart rate still surges on the anniversary as I recall waiting to know all our family members were safe . I have vivid memories of watching Katy Couric describe the planes crashing into the Twin Towers.

Those same memories return to bounce around in my head every 9-11. We’d had lunch in the Towers with family members only two months before. That made the attack very personal.

It’s been fifteen years now, but no matter how long it’s been from either date of infamy, one thing remains constant.

Nearly 3,000 people in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania lost their lives on 9-11. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties">World War II causalities numbered over 60 million.</a> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

Pausing on the anniversary of both events allows us to honor those we’ve lost.