Thursday, September 11, 2008

I remember.

On the Anniversary of the Tragedy, let me say this to all that care to listen:

As important as it is to remember WHAT happened, it's equally important to understand the WHY. Understanding is the thing that we have shied away from this last eight years or so; we traded compassion for posturing, peace for power, respect for rancor.

We had such an opportunity in those days; to unite in tragedy, to bond all the nations of the world together. It was an opportunity that only comes from tragedy.
And we pissed it away in a show of righteous indignation that is STILL making the world weep.

It is true that human nature does not allow for a "push". We don't get even; we get ahead, and the constant escalation brings about more sorrow, more hate, and more destruction and death.

And in this country, to this day, some people reading this will ask, "why do you hate America?"

I don't hate America. I love this country more than some fair weather flag waver with his faded "These Colors Don't Run" bumper sticker can possibly imagine.

That's why I really want my country to try and understand the WHY.

And, if there's somebody out there that can answer all the WHY, without the patriotic platitude, or without flexing the biceps while some country music anthem to American Power plays in the background, I would appreciate it.

As I said to the Republican Representative who appeared at my door on Monday, soliciting a vote, when he politely asked, "What do you want for your country?"

I said: "I want to wake up feeling like I did on September 10, 2001. Think you could do that for me?"

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