Eighty years since Pearl Harbor. Politicians spoke of unity, sacrifice, and resilience. Words easy to repeat because the fight was clear, the enemy obvious, the victory defined.
The fight today isn’t clear. The enemy isn’t across an ocean. It’s within our politics, within our institutions, within the lies half the country embraces.
We remember the sacrifice of 1941 because the line was sharp. We falter in 2021 because the line is blurred, the threat internal. A democracy hollowed out by distrust cannot summon the same resolve. The lesson is simple: memory without vigilance is nostalgia, not protection.