Remebering 9/11

In April of 2001 I was having dinner with my family at Smaldino’s Restaurant on Market Street Extension. All of a sudden a horrible feeling of foreboding came over me. My wife looked at me and asked what was wrong. I said there was something wrong, something was wrong in the universe. The morose went straight to my core. I had never felt anything like it my life, and it lasted for several days. I never felt anything like that again…until the morning of September 11.

My wife had started back to school leaving for work around 7:00. As is my habit, I would leave for work at the same time. It was a glorious morning with a crystal blue sky and bright sunshine. As I made the left turn from Lockwood Blvd to 224 that feeling of foreboding came over me again, only this time it was stronger. It was so strong I had to pull into a parking lot along the road in order to regain my composure. Something was wrong. As the feeling partially subsided, I finished my drive to work.

We had a dispute in the office over something or other, and I turned on the television in my office as I loudly made my feelings known to another lawyer in the office about the issue at hand. Out of the corner of our eyes, we saw the bulletin on television that a plane had crashed into one of the Trade Towers. I remember the comments we made to each other about what kind of a jack-ass would fly a small craft into a building? He must have been looped, and we didn’t give it another thought.

But the news got steadily worse. The other lawyer left the office somewhat oblivious as to the deteriorating situation. I continued to watch, and it wasn’t until the second plane hit the trade tower that I was able to convey to the other members of the office staff that we were under attack.

I was supposed to have lunch with a friend of mine who lived in Steubenville. I left my office early and stopped at my stockbroker’s office. He was a close friend of mine and we watched the news together as things went from bad to worse. I made the trip to Steubenville, but instead of staying for the third martini as was my habit, I decided to drive home right after lunch. I was numb.

When the second plane struck the south tower, the feeling of foreboding lifted.  Something WAS wrong in the universe.

9/11 will join a list of seminal moments in American history, along with Pearl Harbor; John Kennedy’s assassination; the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King; and the Challenger tragedy. We remember where we were when those things happened, and all of these things changed the course of American history.

The new millennium, wrapped in the cloak of the tech revolution and the fall of communism, promised a future of prosperity, peace and freedom. September 11 marked the end of that optimism. In the course of dealing with it, we have fought two wars plus a military intrusion; we have experienced a housing bubble and a financial collapse; we have given up freedoms to the point where they do everything but cavity searches at airports…and they still can’t get it right. Our economy is in shambles…and the Hope and Change promised by a charismatic President has turned into something else.  Those who follow these things can make the case that the troubles we have today are directly related to the massive cut in interest rates after the 9/11 attacks, which were never rescinded and ultimately proved to be one of the origins of the financial collapse in September 2008,

On 9/11 America lost her way. Like after discovering that a burglar has broken into our house, we feel violated. We no longer feel safe and we don’t trust the alarm we have installed to prevent it from happening again. We have fallen into an abyss of political correctness. We have turned a blind eye to the loss of freedoms as we are scanned and searched and observed from cameras pretty much everywhere we go…all in the name of security.

We have lost our ability to see the truth because of our inability to accept the truth. There is evil in the world. It is all around us. You cannot turn a blind eye that there is good, and there is bad. We have to call it what it is.  Yet we have built a politically correct wall around us that prevents us from dealing with the problem.  Unless you are allowed to define it, you cannot fix it.

America has always been a beacon of good in the world. America isn’t perfect. It is made up of people and people aren’t perfect. But collectively we try and strive for the truth, for freedom, and for the rights of man. Mostly we succeed. Sometimes we don’t.  And we need to learn to be proud of our efforts, and not be afraid or ashamed because we aren't perfect.

On the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, let’s remember those who died on that bright shining morning. Let’s remember those who bravely charged into the burning towers to save who they could only to die themselves as the towers collapsed. Let’s remember those who have died on the battlefields in the subsequent military actions. Let’s remember those who are still fighting to protect our nation.

On this tenth anniversary, it’s time to get our “mojo” back. It’s time for America to be reborn and return to the principles that made us great…freedom, personal responsibility, common sense, and individual initiative. These are the four pillars of America. It’s time to rebuild the foundation and make, and keep, America great..the land of the free and the home of the brave.  We cannot continue down the path we are going.  If we do, they win.  And that is unacceptable.