I will never forget 9/11, nor will I ever forget to honor the brave men and women of the emergency services and the military that, along with the victims of 9/11, took the brunt of those attacks.
Our nation can never forget that day and those people.
Our nation needs a point in time and an achievement to mark our coming out of the shadow of that era. This is not something for the government to do. It is not the President’s job; it is our job. What happened on 9/11 changed us all. We were scared, so our government became defensive. Our fear and our government’s defensiveness were justified. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in this world that want to kill a lot of us and modern weaponry makes that possible. We can never let down our guard.
Maybe the concept of not letting down our guard is the key to coming out of the Post 9/11 shadow. Up until now, 9/11 has been about securing our nation, better airport security, tighter borders, color coded warnings. The new era, the Post – Post 9/11 era, needs to be about securing our Constitution, securing our rights as citizens. That can only happen if we read our Constitution, understand what it says, stay very well informed about our government’s actions and pay close attention to events around the world. Most important, it means staying in touch with ideas we oppose, opening our minds to those ideas and attempting to understand. This was not our way in those years leading up to 9/11. It is not our way today, where we fight instead of talk.
Many people see the current post 9/11 era as a victory for the terrorists because of our paranoia. What an incredible victory it will be if We the People use 9/11 to make our nation, our Constitution stronger.
God bless America.
