Observing September 11, 2001, ten years later.

Ten years later, I post on my niece's Facebook wall "Happy Birthday" for she is nineteen today. She has grown to be a fine young woman in these past ten years. She is an outstanding student and an outstanding two-sport athlete for her university. She brings smiles and laughter when she is home school. And I am proud of her. Today I think of family and what they mean to me.

Today many of you are also thinking of family but for other reasons. Many of you are thinking, mourning, again, the tragic terrorist attack on the World Trade Center by fanatical Muslim extremists who, in their blind and ungodly hate for the United States, choose to kill innocent people for their own personal glory. Lost in their brainwashed ignorance the terrorists did not diminish the influence of America in the Middle East, they expanded it. The result of their brutal slaughter was a blank check for the US president by the Federal Reserve and congress to invade two countries for the purpose of nation building and an attempt to change the warlord societies prevalent in that region.

But what does mourning do for us today? Can we not remember without mourning? The media frenzy alone is reward for the remaining terrorists who still lust for blood, death and glory. Must we cater to that lust? Shouldn't we cease to cower in fear with our wounds exposed? Shouldn't our wounds have healed in the passing of a decade? Shouldn't we stand tall with heads high in defiance? For these reasons I cannot participate in my country's homage. It is a display of weakness. It is counterproductive. It does not build security. It does not stimulate determination. It only stokes the embers of the rolling condition of fear that our own politicians use to manipulate elections. It is valid to remember our dead and to honor the heroes of that day but there is no benefit in mourning this event that occurred ten years ago.

Ten years ago I was working from home that morning and watched the whole event in real time on television -- including the surprise of the second plane. It was undeniably a horrible tragedy. Yet it united this country for a few weeks revealing what we could be, if only we let go of our selfishness. Today reminds me less of the loss of a few thousand lives, but more of the visible death of this country.

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