Sept. 11th: Never Forgive...Never Forget

Nine years ago today, on September 11, 2001, militant Islamic terrorists hijacked and flew commercial passenger airplanes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and The Pentagon. A forth plane, Flight 93, crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa...2,977 men and women lost their lives that day. The nation watched in stunned horror and disbelief as they witnessed this act of war carried out on their fellow Americans.

And instantly, we as a nation, responded by coming together as one...with a common cause...to answer this attack. We rescued our countrymen from the smoldering ashes, we mourned as a nation as we buried our fallen friends and family, we flew our American flags defiantly and proudly...and We cried with one thunderous voice..."This Is America and We Will Never Forget." As I looked around me that day...As I looked around me in the days that followed, between the alternating tears of anguish and the overwhelming rage, I was proud to be an American. We all lost something that day. Many lost family and friends...but we all lost that deeply embedded sense of security that we had enjoyed all our lives. The country was changed forever that day.

Our government pleaded with us not to take our rage out on the innocent middle eastern people in this country...so we suppressed our rage. Our government promised to make it right and to restore our lost sense of security. Our government promised that they would investigate and identify the failures that made this attack possible and eliminate them so it could never happen again.We believed them, and we were even willing to give up our liberties and freedoms for the promise of security and a restored nation. The government took those freedoms and liberties we were so willing to give up, and in return, we got nothing. 

We did our part...we suppressed our rage...we agreed to airport security, the loss of privacy and liberty, the creation of a massive government expansion in the name of Homeland Security. All for nothing. We are no more secure today than we were on September 10th, 2001...But We Are Far Less Free. And while we watch our freedoms slip away, we also watch them handed over to the very people who attacked us that day. If we protest, they riot, burn our flag and threaten to kill us. And the government takes their side by berating us and apologizing to the terrorists for our intolerance.

 I've spent the day remembering... trying to get my head around the emotions of that day...trying to justify in my mind the idea that we must forgive and forget. We have suppressed our rage for a murderous attack on our country...on our people...on our way of life... in the name of tolerance and good will. And I have come to the realization that I can't justify...nor should I justify...forgiveness of the people who celebrated, and continue to celebrate, the murder of innocent men and women on September 11, 2001. Forgiveness is worthless and wasted when it is given to people who have no remorse for their actions. There can be no tolerance of others without an agreement to live and let live. These people...terrorists...will never agree to live and let live. So we must never forgive....and never forget.