We must never forget!
September 11, 2006
November 11, 2001 - November
11, 2006, five years have past!
I am sure that as we commemorate
this event, now known as Patriots Day, that at least in the short run,
there will be a goodly number of words written in blogs, edited into newspapers,
spoken about on television and vocalized in many individual conversations.
For as many as may recall
the event, there may be an equal number that would just as soon not even
deal with the horror of what happened that day. I would submit to
you that as a nation, we better never forget!
This event should yearly
continue to remind us that we are more vulnerable to attack than we ever
thought possible. It could be called the End of Innocence or the
Demise of a National Naiveté. We were far too haughty about
our security for far too long.
Never in our history had
we been attacked at home. Of course many will say that it originally
occurred on December 7, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese struck Pearl Harbor.
It indeed was considered as a direct attack, except that it was not on
our North American soil. Although it is memorialized as Pearl Harbor
Remembrance Day it simply does not carry the same significance for many
Americans as does 9-11. Plus it has been suggested that Franklin
Roosevelt may have had an advance warning and did not act.
I would suggest to you
that likewise it should stand alone as a reminder that there truly are
people in the world that wish us not just harm, they want to kill us off!
They cannot allow Democracy to exist in the world because it allows religious
freedom.
Much ado lately has been
attributed to the statement "Islamic Fascists" but it truly is an accurate
description. Merriam-Webster defines fascism as "a political
philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above
the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government
headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation,
and forcible suppression of opposition".
The Shiite and Sunni Muslims
that are part of the terror pandemic are taking bits and pieces of disconnected
doctrine from the Quran. That document does provide language for
the Jihad however in the main it promotes peace.
Regardless, as long as
there is so much as one Radical Islamist left in the world, we are at risk
and we better not become complacent again. Our opposition to terror
is not a partisan matter, although some would try to divide us along party
lines. The risk we face from international terrorism continues to
exist. At the point when we are attacked again the weaponry used
against us does not seek out Reds or Blues and our only true defense against
terrorists is unanimity not partisan factionalism.
Over the span of these
recent days, I have provided several blogs that actually were actually
leading up to this one. One; "Memories" dealt with what we
remember and dealt with the song lyric, "What's too painful to remember
we simply choose to forget!"
More recently a blog title
was "Systematized Amnesia!" The theme of that one was that far too
often the exigencies of the day and the speed of events overwhelm our ability
to remember what lurks in the wings waiting for our demise.
September 11, 2001 absolutely
must be recalled for what it represents, a paradigm shift in the scope
of our national security. Together we must accept our mutual
responsibility to the republic and routinely recall the deaths of 2996
people; 2,996 of our fellow citizens that never expected what befell them
on that day
We have a distinct advantage
because we know the dangers that wait for us. We even know whom they
represent. What we don't know is when the next event will come and
it is certain to come. "United we stand, divided we fall' is just
as true today as it was when Aesop originally coined the words back in
the 6th Century A.D.
Our memory must always
include our thoughts from 9-11, if we allow ourselves the luxury of "Systematized
Amnesia" we will simply evolve into another statistic and I have no desire
to be a notch on some terrorist's belt!
