Week of September 8, 2002

A Special Commentary on 911

By

911 has always been a special number for me.  Other than just being the numbers that are worn out on my telephone, I was actually born on 911.  I was born 9/11in the 9^th hour and the 11^th minute. I weighed 9lbs and 11ozs (my Mother is still mad at me).   All this is true and something my family and I will always remember.

This week our entire nation remembers 911.   Americans will remember September 11 in the same way we remember December 7^th.    With righteous anger and resolve.   Did the murderers bring America to its knees?  Yes, just long enough to pray.   And when we dusted off our knees we dusted the bad guys off the desert.

We’re not through yet.  When the President stepped up and did his job, I actually thanked God for the man we had in the white house.  After reflecting on the election fiasco, it was clear to me that God was in control.  As much as I make fun of the Republicans, I just couldn’t envision Gore stepping up in the same way that Trailer Trash and Rednecks would have handled it.  I am proud of the way Bush stepped up.

I’ve never been a pacifist.  I learned way back that the willingness to fight can end one before it even gets started.  If someone blew up my trailer and destroyed the lives of my family and friends, I would aggressively seek justice.   I’d gather my friends and kin and take care of things.   This is where the United States found itself.  When we were attacked, we found out who our friends really were.  We also better remember those who weren’t.

Today, we find ourselves with another problem.  An old problem.  One that really should have been fixed some time ago.  In Iraq, we have another leader that seems to have no problem with slaughtering his own people for the sake of his own ego and power.  We’ve seen this before many times through history: One man, able to consolidate and hold his power through terror and murder, seemingly holds the world hostage with fear.  Has it been so long since Hitler that we no longer see the pattern?  Does anyone remember Idi Amin and what he did to Uganda?  Could you imagine either of those men with a Nuke?  Do we dare allow the opportunity for a Hitler or a Idi Amin to acquire these types of weapons?

It would suck, after finally putting the cold war behind us, to loose our New York or Washington brothers to a nuke smuggled in by terrorist.  It would suck even more if our elected leaders refused to recognize a pattern and allowed it to happen.    Some choices are hard.  This is one of them.  Do we send our kids to war on what might happen?  Or do we risk doing nothing and loosing a few million people?  This is why we elect our leaders, to make the hard choices.  We expect them to demonstrate wisdom.  We expect them to know when to attack and when to refrain.  We also expect them to know that if we must do something alone we need to stiffen our spines and do it.   I will never know all the secrets that our elected leaders know about what is going on.  Without this knowledge I cannot judge if we should or should not send our kids to Iraq in the continuation of the war on terror.  This is where faith comes in.  Faith in those we elected to do their jobs and faith that God is still in control.

We are Americans, and we all remember that we're all in the Great Big Trailer Park Together.

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