The Day After

9/11. The date has become so well known it's unnecessary to add anything, not even the year. That ought to tell how much the events that unfolded in New York, Washington D.C. & Pennsylvania has impacted the Country. It was good to see the memorial events across the Nation yesterday, I read over the PA at school a timeline of what happened on that day and the Presidential Declaration. We observed a moment of silence as well.

9/12. Doesn't have quite the same ring or impact does it? I believe 9/12 is as important if not more important than 9/11. September 11, 2001 is the day the unthinkable happened to the United States. September 12, is how WE responded. And, how we've responded every day since.

If you were to give US, the United States of America, a grade or give an assessment since September 11, 2001, what would it be? I'm not sure what I would give. I'm not defending any given position. I own a couple of guns, I've been to Conceal & Carry classes. I don't have an AR15, probably won't any time soon. It's not because I don't want one, in my case I'd probably spend the money on a new piece of technology or camera equipment. I believe strongly in the freedom to bear arms and free speech. It's that last freedom that concerns me far more than any armament I may or may not want to purchase.

Observing the US since September 11, 2001, it seems we have fought a war of words among ourselves. If I were to make an assessment solely on that, I don't think anyone is winning. In fact, I'd say everyone is yelling so loud to be heard, no one is listening. The terrorists wanted to see America crumble under it's own weight, they wanted to see the United States crushed under the hedonism that it so loathed. I don't believe that was their intention, but we are crumbling.

Why? I think the answer is found in September 12, 2001. We came together because at that time it was all or nothing. United we stand, Divided we fall. We've forgotten that simple truth. We've allowed the basest of human behaviors to flourish. We've become more selfish, we only worry about our individual needs.

Is there a fix? I think there is, but I'm not sure anyone will want to take the time. We're in the same kind of shape that I've seen in so many relationships, a lot of talking, yelling, screaming, hurt feelings and down right stubbornness. No one is going to budge an inch. NO one is listening. More importantly, no one is listening as if they care about the other person. Everyone is too preoccupied with being right and feeling justified.

September 12, 2001 many stopped and prayed, held their loved ones closer. Places of faith were filled, so many were seeking answers, peace and comfort. For the first time in a long time, this Country was THE United States of America. There were no political divides, racial or ethnic divides. People crossed aisles, reached out to ensure their neighbors were okay. Neighbor wasn't defined by a location. We were ALL Americans.

You and I need to stop everything we're doing and see our Neighbors again, see them as a friend. Someone as deserving of the freedoms we've all been blessed. We've done this before, at the cost of 3,000 lives. We owe the men and women who died on September 11, 2001 in the Twin Towers, the men and women who died trying to save them, the men and women who've suffered from their efforts on that fateful day, and the families of those men and women. We owe it to the men and women who have laid their lives on the line ever since, some paying the ultimate price.

Listen to the words of someone who watched his country torn apart by a war of words and ideologies:

"...The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863.
Gettysburg, PA

PS
Edward Everett's speech prior to Lincoln's was over two hours long. And no one remembers a word. There's a lesson there America.