Armistice Daze

While watching a local 9/11 commemoration Tuesday, a curious thought came to me, “What day was Osama bin Laden killed?” Did anyone in the audience know?

I didn’t know, myself.

When the Al-Qaida leader met his fusillade of bullets is the smaller query. The larger one is, Why does America obsess over its setbacks or defeats or, at best, beginnings, more than victories or culminations?

As a career daily journalist, I know firsthand the grief thrown from readers if coverage of Pearl Harbor Day is deemed insufficient.

You know, Dec. 7. Not to mention, 1941.

Victory in Europe and Victory in Japan days no longer are marked on most calendars. Still, most newspapers with their aging readerships have a photo or brief article with those, 67 years later. May 13 for the former and Aug. 14 the latter. My progressive community has a solemn annual ceremony for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, earlier in August.

Armistice or Veterans Day could be the exception proving the rule. World War I concluded then, perhaps aided by its mnemonic: 11th hour, 11th month, 11th day. Here, the beginning of WWI, either the shooting of the archduke or the U.S. entry into the action, are lost to most of us, without an excursion into the Wikipedia.

Civil War — When did the generals meet at the Appomattox Courthouse? Maybe its spot on calendars is missing because it was a victory only for part of the country.

The War of Independence. We celebrate July Fourth, which was no tragedy. Indeed, the Revolution began well before the signers gathered in the hall in Philadelphia (Concord, some 14 months earlier). But when was Yorktown, when the British surrendered? Hurrah hurray! Oct. 19, 1781. Or the new Congress ratifying the Treaty of Paris in 1784. (“Senators, this clause mocks our new republic! Strike it and send the parchment back to London, at once on your fastest schooner! Hurry. We’ll reconvene in eight months.”)

So here sits Pearl Harbor, the devastating surprise attack on thousands in Hawaii. And there stood until Sept. 11, 2001, the World Trade Center towers, a side of the Pentagon and a smooth field in Pennsylvania.

It’s not an official holiday, but familiar to most is Nov. 22, as in 1963.

Memorial Day honors the fallen of all wars, marked soon after the end of the Civil War. Appomattox by the way was April 9, 1865, Lincoln being shot five days later.

Britain has essentially no public holidays directly concerning wars or attacks. Canada only honors Armistice Day, as Remembrance Day. Mexico honors a few victories and some declarations; Cinco de Mayo is a victory day. Hurrah, hurray.

There seem to be no specific, widely known days marking any part of the War of 1812 and the Spanish-American War; Korea and Vietnam; and Iraq I, Iraq II or Afghanistan.

What causes the U.S.A.’s obsession with Sept. 11 and Dec. 7? These were days of humiliation and horror.

For the latter, victory came following years of risky effort. For the former and the two wars it spurred, there is no victory in George II’s Iraq War II, which we’ve been told has ended. The decade-long military effort in Afghanistan — whose goal was to hunt Al-Qaida leaders more often than not in Pakistan — is scheduled to end in 2014.

Soccer’s World Cup also is scheduled for 2014. Gooooooal !!!

I have no conclusion to this American compulsion, other than a hunch we collectively feel just a bit guilty over our long-lived good fortune, to have made democracy thrive.

Answering my own question: May 2, 2011. I won’t remember that date but always will recall the hour and where I was: Around 10:30 p.m. Central at the Fayetteville Town Center, for a concert of hometown star Lucinda Williams. She had just concluded, and the crowd was waiting for her encore. Stage lights stayed up, but the band took forever to return.

Lucinda stood at her mike to announce the news. Knowing it sounded like a joke or a rumor, she then explained musicians and crew were backstage and watched on TV President Barack Obama’s announcement of bin Laden’s slaying.

Then they chose the ideal encore:

Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” rocked harder and faster than here:

Column Copyright 2012 Ben S. Pollock Jr.