Differences: 2020 vs. 1941    
     
   Two wars: one military, one invisible. America wasn't fully prepared for either sneak attack. Both threatened our nation's well being, and both brought out the best in people. Both produced heroes. 

   One difference is our response. Author James Lee Burke was about 4, on December 7, 1941 he and his parents were eating in a cafe. At 1:15 p.m., the cafe's radio program was interrupted - the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. 

   "No one moved or spoke," he remembers. He saw fear in faces of adults. 

   Our 2020 crisis arose gradually, but but quickly enough to catch us off guard. 
A couple mayors and governors and a U.S. House leader initially did their best FDR impressions: Like, there's nothing to fear. 

   Shocked by Pearl Harbor, angry Americans lined up to volunteer. Industries switched to wartime products. Today some companies and even individuals make face masks and other personal protective equipment. 

   In 1941, we were still in the Great Depression. People not in the military sprang into action, many homeowners planting "victory gardens." Today - a great economy now interrupted - most people stay home and avoid catching or spreading the enemy virus. The fight mainly belongs to brave medical people, including retirees and military medics.

   Burke remembers that food and gasoline were rationed, and tires were simply unavailable, as was sugar or butter. (Today, it's toilet paper!) At age 8 he spent almost a year in bed with either polio or rheumatic fever, or both. There was little diagnosis as we have today.

   He survived, and with a friend took a red wagon from house to house, collecting old newspapers, coat hangers, rubber bands and bacon grease. The latter was used to make nitroglycerin. Individuals voluntarily sent their guns to England for the expected Nazi invasion.

   People learned names like Guadalcanal, Midway, Corregidor, Normandy and Ardennes. Today, the name is Wuhan. 

     Jimmy