Archive for September 11th, 2010
Thank you President Bush for being the man you needed to be when America needed it most
Ten years after the state of Florida held the nation hostage with its electoral chaos and ineptitude, we see added importance to everything that happened during the 2000 presidential recount and disputed election. We can now appreciate that scene as a cosmic hammering out: which man would be picked, in the end, who would be called upon at a rapidly approaching date to stand in the rubble in New York on a day when he needed to be not just a president, not just a leader, but a real and true American hero.
Which man had that in him…to BECOME something much bigger and better than he had ever been before?
Which man would deliver the goods?
We’ve been thinking a lot about Quest Theory lately, and that’s all been reinforced and amplified by the momentous occasion in our lives that was the Restoring Honor Rally in Washington, DC. At Glenn Beck’s event, history was put on display, highlighting men and women who had the strength and abilities to rise to challenges when they were needed the most. Most of these people were ordinary…until they had to BECOME extraordinary in terrible times.
We used to think that ANYONE who was President on 9/11 would have hit the right notes when he or she was called to duty on that awful day.
Now, we don’t believe a President Gore would have delivered what the nation needed. He would have given a speech, surely. It would have been stiff and cardboard, like Gore himself. Chances are, Democrats and the media would have found some way to “take advantage of the crisis”, as Rahm Emanuel is so fond of doing, and instead of giving Americans what they needed that day, Gore would have found a way to turn a speech at the rubble into a Democrat agenda-pushing event. Just like Democrats did at the funeral of Senator Wellstone in Minnesota…and just as they did at Senator Kennedy’s funeral last year, where they used his actual FUNERAL as a platform for pushing Obamacare.
Worse than what Gore would have done, we shudder to imagine what Obama will do if anything like this happens while he’s still in office for the next two years. Before he’d get around to comforting, consoling, and leading the nation, he’d of course have to lecture on what a peaceful religion Islam is and how Muslims are just misunderstood Care Bears who would stop murdering people if we just did whatever they wanted and stopped resisting them.
George W. Bush was what the country needed after 9/11, and through all manner of twists, turns, and Floridian ineptitude, that’s EXACTLY who this nation had in the Oval Office when Islam murdered so many Americans.
We had him at Ground Zero, with his bullhorn, and he did one Hell of a job when summoned to action.
We’ve gotten dozens of emails today asking us to re-run an Open Letter we wrote to President Bush last year, so here that is for you now. It’s fitting to look back on all the comments in the thread for this post because so many people were talking in it about Bush’s leadership on 9/11/01.
Again, today more than every other day in the year, we want to deeply thank President Bush for his leadership, strength, conviction, and clarity.
As we said before, we’ll say again: You done good, Dubya.
We truly love this man.
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See:
http://hillbuzz.org/2009/01/20/goodbye-and-thank-you-george-w-bush/
9/11 Happened For a Reason — What Lessons Have Been Learned?
There is already an open Never Forget 9/11 thread posted by the fabulous Chrissy. It is not my intent that this thread usurp that one. I just felt that on this day, of all days, I could not go without posting what is on my mind.
For the spiritual among us, I have a few thoughts for everyone to ponder.
I believe things happen for a reason. Not that your life is predetermined, that things are “fated”, or that you have a meeting with destiny. Just that… well… life gives you chances to learn lessons, and lessons give you knowledge to make a difference.
No disappointment, no failure, no tragedy is a complete loss if only you can find the lesson to be learned within it.
I also believe that life gives you second chances. Second… third… fourth… chances to learn the lessons you may have missed along the way.
9/11 happened for a reason. I believe that in my heart and soul. It is our job to learn the lessons, and make a difference, so that it doesn’t have to happen again.
Reasonable people can disagree over the exact lessons 9/11 should have brought us.
Sadly I think progressives would tend to say it was a lesson in how U.S. “imperialism” causes other people to hate us, and therefore we are the real bad guy. Considering that progressives tend to adhere to moral relativism, if they adhere to any moral code at all, it doesn’t surprise me that they would refuse to acknowledge the vast evidence before them of the good this country has done. But it does sadden me, and makes me all the more intent on finding the real lessons of 9/11 so that maybe, just maybe, I can help share those with someone who fails to see.
I feel that many of us learned the right lessons, but too many of us — perhaps myself included — have fallen back into complacency. As time passed, the painful memory faded, the scars on our souls healed, even as the scarred earth remains.
And then, we let ourselves down. We let down those who sacrificed themselves that day to save others:
We started to forget entirely.
The government, in it’s usual well-meaning-but-thoroughly-inadequate fashion, proclaimed 9/11 to be “Patriot Day”. A nice platitude, but wholly insufficient to describe either the horrors or the heroism of that day. “Patriot Day”. What does that even mean? To me, EVERY day should be a Patriot day.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Chrissy’s uplifting story about the survivor whose dog led him to safety. I literally feel pride in my heart when I hear the tales of the heroism of others recounted by those that were saved, or by the families of those who decided to do something about that other jet. The heroism displayed on that day makes me proud just to call myself an American. But so long as terrorism exists on this planet, 9/11 should also be remembered for what it is: a stark and dark reminder that evil exists, and WE are the target simply because of who we are!
9/11 should be in our thoughts every single day, because 9/11 was just one terrible example of the very real and very constant danger that we all face each and every day. It was also, I believe, a warning. Our second, or maybe third, or maybe even fourth chance to learn whatever lesson the cosmos was trying to send us.
I can think of dozens of lessons learned from 9/11 just off the top of my head. Everything from “life is precious” to “don’t sweat the small stuff” and everything in between. But here are a few simple, immutable truths that stick out in my mind today.
1. Terrorism can only die. Or Live. There is no surrender.
The Shot Heard Round the World began a terrible and deadly saga that eventually resulted in the surrender of the British and the formation of the greatest nation in the history of the world.
The attack on Ft. Sumter in 1861 began a terrible and deadly saga that eventually resulted in the surrender of the Confederates and the abolition of slavery.
Pearl Harbor started a terrible and deadly saga that eventually ended with the surrender of the Japanese and the death of one of the world’s most barbaric and evil dictators.
9/11 started a terrible and deadly saga that has not ended and, truthfully, may never end. There is no ultimate victory to be had, at least not strategically. Terrorism cannot surrender. There will be no laying down of arms, no signing of a peace accord on a naval ship or at some fort.
Terrorism can only die. This is an immutable fact. A simple lesson.
2. Terrorists are impossible to placate.
Our President acts like he can charm the terrorist into no longer hating us, or somehow placate them by taking every available opportunity to kowtow to Islam, even when politically damaging.
The terrorists have already told us what they want. Even if you accept them at face value, giving them what they want is impossible for any President. This is another immutable fact. Another simple lesson.
3. It only takes one terrorist to kill thousands and terrorize an entire nation.
Every day, hundreds or thousands of people slip across the border into the United States. Most are just hoping to escape a bleak and desperate situation for the chance at a better life in America. But among the hundreds or thousands each day, it is undeniably possible that one or two “criminal entrants” may be terrorists. For decades our border has been porous. For decades terrorists could have been slipping through, and maybe even carrying materials for a dirty bomb or chemical weapon.
Fact. Immutable. Simple. Lesson.
These are but a few examples among many… dozens or perhaps even hundreds of lessons remain unstated. Yet our elected leaders fail to grasp even these simple truths, and in many cases, so do we as a nation.
The border remains open, and each new day brings new potential for terrorists to sneak across. Congress lacks the will to secure our border, regardless of which party is in power, while blaming it on logistics. And far too many of us believe them.
We accuse our own population of radicalism and inciting violence for just talking about burning a Koran, while our enemies burn the American flag almost daily. We continue to “PC” ourselves into docile submission out of fear of being branded a “racist”, a “radical” or “insensitive”. Even worse are those who are doing the branding — whether wittingly or not, they aid the terrorists in their ultimate goal — Ummah — one-world Islamic theocratic government, by brow-beating even those of us who have legitimate, reasonable concerns about the way Islam is conducting itself in this country.
What a shame it would be if our own ignorance… our own unwillingness to learn the simple lessons of 9/11 were to come back and haunt us.
Now I know what some of you are thinking, because I’m thinking it myself while writing this very article. “Why are you using WE? Don’t lump ME into that group of ignoramuses! *I* didn’t forget about 9/11!”
Point taken. I’ve felt, thought, and said those very words, and I’ve been participating here long enough to know that I’m largely preaching to the choir on this particular issue. And preaching to the choir is great… often times cathartic…. and fun! But sound does not escape an echo chamber. I think that on this day especially, we must be ready to cast off our self-identification as the “immediate WE” and engage the “broader WE”, as in We The People. Otherwise, no real progress will ever be made.
I don’t claim to know the right answers. I don’t claim to know all the lessons that should or could have been learned that day. I didn’t know anyone that was killed that day, so it didn’t touch me personally in the way it touched many of you.
On this day of remembrance, I have no lost friends to recall, no lost family to mourn. So I try to remember those I did not know, and honor their sacrifice, and to seek out and re-learn the wisdom and the lessons that I was given an opportunity to personally learn that day. Maybe even learn some new ones in the context of present day and in light of current events.
I hope you all do the same, even if you think you’ve already got it all figured out. I’m a big fan of taking time out to reflect. And a day like today presents the perfect opportunity to achieve a reflective state of mind.
It is said that God protects babies and fools. But to be a fool, you must lack the opportunity or capacity to gain understanding. Those who are presented with evidence and refuse to acknowledge or consider it cannot later claim the mantle of “fool” in hopes of some Karmic reprieve.
Those of us with the capacity to understand also have the obligation to understand, and the obligation to share. The obligation… or indeed the Divine Opportunity… to help impart wisdom on a fellow human being.
It is my sincere hope that if every person who reads took just one measly hour out of their day to THINK about 9/11, and find a simple truth, a simple lesson to share with friends and family, and shared that today, that the whole entire country would be a better place by tomorrow.
That’s really what life comes down to for me. A series of occurrences — some good, some bad, others terrible — and opportunities to learn with each of them. Being willing to learn, and more importantly being willing and unafraid to share your knowledge, is what allows humanity to grow and prosper. It’s what makes us more than just the sum of our parts.
Call it God… call it Divinity… call it Providence… or just call it plain ‘ol Karma. We owe it to ourselves, our children, to each other, and to humanity as a whole to not sit down… not be silent… and most importantly…
…to never, ever forget!
