REFLECT AND REMEMBER

9/11/01

…

9/11/11

I feel it only appropriate today that each of us pause and reflect back for some measure of time on those tragic, sad, infuriating events of one decade ago. As Americans, they really should never be very far from our thoughts. That day—and those immediately following —showed ourselves and the rest of the world the best parts (although only too briefly) of the American spirit … and the worst parts of man's inhumanity to man.

I will leave it to others to extol the virtues of the Islamic faith and the peace-loving practices of the many millions of "good" Muslims, even though I can't help wondering where their voices are, en masse, speaking in condemnation of the radical Jihadists who perpetrated 9/11 and continue staging countless other acts of mass murder against the vulnerable and unsuspecting. And excuse me if I happen to be boarding a plane with a dark-complected young man jabbering in Arabic and I pause to give him the narrow-eye just a little closer than I would some blue-haired little granny from Boise. Call it profiling if you will, I call it common sense.

I will also leave to others most of the compassion and worldly broad-mindedness. I choose to remain pissed off. Yeah, we finally got bin Laden—where was your "Allahu Akbar" that night, fuckwad, when you were cowering behind two women before the Seals blew your sorry ass away? But that still leaves in his wake tens of thousands of others, all eager to carry on his bloodthirsty goals.

For me, it boils down to this:

Remember the fallen.

Remember the sacrifices.

Remember the heroism …

and Remember the cowardly bastards responsible—they're still out there, and we must never lose sight of that. 

Persevere — WD