Winning Words 12/7/11
“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald) On Dec 6, 1941, I used my paper route earnings to buy a $25 Defense Savings Bond which still hangs on my wall as a reminder of what happened a day later. I followed the battles of that war, and I’ve stood on the deck of the ship where the war’s peace treaty was signed. Life, too, has its battles. Eventually, there is a peace. ;-) Jack.

FROM SAINT JAMES IN MICHIGAN: Without battles, there is no victory!////FROM JACK: "O death, where is thy victory?"

FROM GUSTIE MARLYS: During our sing-a-long at both Care Centers we sang at today, I talked about that day--Dec. 7, 1941, when we all sat around our radios listening to Pres. Roosevelt as he told us we had been bombed and were at war. Then we sang God Bless America. They really sang. They are the people that lived it! ////FROM JACK: Tom Brokaw called them, "The Greatest Generatiom." Have you read his book?

FROM ILLINOIS LIZ: I like this one!////FROM JACK: I like the word, PEACE...at the end of all kinds of battles.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL: Our generation will never forget this day. The Missouri was a reminder of the end of that battle. I am taking a course on Japanese culture and language this semester, and one of the women in the class had her father who was killed in the Pacific. It is hard to imagine how hard that must be for her. The class is led by a Japanese who married a GI, and it is amazing how many people have traveled there in recent years. Her husband is active in the class, too, and we getting schooled in the thousand cranes. Life is full of battles to be won in many ways.////FROM JACK: I remember, but I would never call my friends, Japs or Nazis. Nor would I call my Muslim friends, terrorists.

FROM BLAZING OAKS: "God's alternative to revenge is not a truce or standoff, or cold war, or isolationism. It's Forgiveness." from Adele Calhoun's book, "Invitations from God..." America ended the Victor, from the war with Japan, but at what cost?!! And it seems, from what we read later, that Roosevelt was alerted to an attack, but did not alert the Pearl Harbor Base in time! We can't change the past, but HOPEFULLY we can LEARN from it, and keep praying for Peace among mankind. Peace seems elusive: Conflict is ever present. We are called to be faithful in our little corner of the world! Never give up!////FROM JACK: I like the poem, "Invictus." I remember seeing a Gold Star flag in the window of a Moline home.

FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER: It was a long march from Corregidor to Mount Suribachi. Each step is a monument to faith and perseverance.////FROM JACK: I wonder how many, young and old, could find those places on a map today?

FROM DC IN MICHIGAN: Here's what I remember. The night of December 5 we went to Lake Lillian, MN, for a district meeting. Wilton Bergstrand's father was the pastor. I always liked to go there because there was a lady who decorated sugar cubes, and I always got one or two. (I was five.) Anyway, when we got back to Hector, we had a flat tire. So my dad said that times were getting worse, and he went to downtown Hector on the 6th and bought 4 tires for our 1935 Pontiac. Then on Monday, the 8th, you could no longer buy any tires. So he was all set until after the war. And we had that Pontiac until 1952, when he bought a 1941 Chevrolet. I learned to drive in that Chevy. The Pontiac moved from Hector to Braddock PA, in June of 1944 and then to Superior, WI, in June of 1948. While in Braddock those tires had to have chains on them to drive up and down the hills in winter. All of this is more than you needed to know, but so it goes.////FROM JACK: You seem to remember a lot more than Pearl Harbor. Your memories trigger the ones that I have of that time.

FROM CWR IN B'MORE: .....remembering that war as a youth on the home front, I understand this one, but I unfortunately didn't save my Bond.////FROM JACK: I wonder if the bank would accept my bond, if I turned it in? I understand that the interest has stopped growing on it.

FROM SHARIN' SHARON: I too needed to hear this today. Last night I heard disappointing news and I hope God will still turn the situation around. Really I hope to be able to see more clearly what He is doing now and how I need to be about being thankful instead of fearful about some people's discerning. Is your bond all yellow and vintage-looking? Or does it still look crisp and new?////FROM JACK: Your response reminds me of the Easter hymn, "The Strife Is O'er." The ultimate battle has been won. BTW, the bond is like new.