Never Forget

What have we become now that we've forgotten the importance of remembering what happened 8 years ago today?

Every year on 9/11, I dig up what video I can find of the live newscasts as the events unfolded. I watch President Bush give his addresses. I watch the anchors and the assorted reporters and pundits all hastily brought in to cover the tragedy. Never before in American history could we watch such a tragedy literally unfold before our eyes.

I remember being stunned and wondering what, in our post-modern and tolerance above all other virtues, society and the body politic would muster in response to this. I raised a flag in the coming days as it became popular to do so. I gauged my response so that my anger and desire for retribution remained focused on the particular breed of Islam that bred this kind of hatred and not on those in my community that had the misfortune to have the name of their religion share a name with what the barbarians who enjoy killing innocent civilians call their religion.

Alas, memories fade and American memories fade faster than most. Today I watched President Bush's addresses to the nation during the period of mourning that surrounded the destruction of the World Trade Center, part of the Pentagon, and that field in Pennsylvania. Today I heard a man that was vastly different from the one that left office not 10 months ago and nothing like the man who occupies the office of President today. Today I heard a man speak with courage, resolve, and most of all genuine leadership. A man who knew what needed to be done, knew it would grow more and more unpopular as time went on, and knew he had to do it anyway.

Today, we have a sniveling coward in the Oval Office. We have a man who'd rather prostrate himself before those who would lead the barbarians of our time than stand up to them and punch them in the face himself if need be. Today we have a man who'd rather have us spend the day in service to our community rather than spend one minute remembering and allowing that remembrance renew our resolve to end this evil in our world. Today we have a would be tyrant bent on resurrecting the tired ideals of Marxism long after history rendered its verdict upon that failed ideology.

So what have we become on this day, 8 years later? Have we proven the bin Ladens, the Ahmadinejads, the Jong Ils, and the Chavezs of the world are right and that we don't have the resolve to resist evil for as long as it takes? Have we dropped the torch of freedom and liberty handed down to us from our forefathers because carrying that torch is too much of a scary and uncertain burden? Has the "sleeping giant" that Admiral Yamamoto so feared almost 68 years ago and that bin Laden's stooges 8 years ago awoke again gone back to sleep?

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the election of President Barack Obama demonstrate to me that 9/11 never happened as far as our country is concerned today. Today we are working to bring the subhuman slime that assisted in 9/11 and so many other acts of barbarism into the United States so they can be tried as common criminals. Today we are in the process of retreating from Iraq and Afghanistan, not because we've won or that the job is complete, but that there is an utter lack of political will to engage this enemy any longer. Today we mark the return to 9/10 thinking and 9/10 values.

To me, it is the final nail in the coffin that our government cannot and indeed must not be trusted to stand for truth and freedom. America is now on the path to abdicating our position in the world as the defenders of liberty and the sworn enemy of the tyrant and the oppressor and our leaders gleefully pull us faster and faster down that path. I see now that it is as the founders intended, the American People, who must be this world's defender of liberty. It is We the People who must oppose the tyrant and oppressor, even if that means opposing those we elected to "lead" us. America is not our government, nor is our government America.

Alas, too many people have forgotten this and I would dare say these people may inhabit what We the People call America, but they are not Americans. They've lost that spark like a caged lion does after years of captivity. They suckle off the entitlement teat and call themselves free. They try to tell our children that there is freedom to be found in oppression. They endlessly remind us of how flawed our system is. Yes, our system is flawed, but it is far and away better than what anyone else in the world has. Yes, there are those who abuse our system, both in and out of government, but those people are the exception not the rule.

So today, I remember. I remember the ones who died 8 years ago today. I pray for comfort to those who still grieve and rest in the promise that God will comfort those who mourn. Today I will remember the unspeakable hatred that sparked the events I remember this day. Today I will reject the barbarians desire to hide behind a religion to ward off responsibility for their atrocities and declare them to be outcasts of moral society. Today I will renew my call upon our leaders to remember this enemy hasn't gone away. Today I will remind our leaders that this enemy cannot be assuaged, negotiated, nor reasoned with. Today I will remind our leaders that America still has unfinished business to complete, no matter how painful or politically difficult, that started on this day 8 years ago. Today I will remind those who claim to lead us that if they neglect or sabotage their duty to finish what was started 8 years ago today, that We the People will see to it that we provide new leaders who will.