Reflections on 9/11/2002

[Bob Hubbard]

Reflections on 9/11/2002

It’s been a year…A long year.

366 days ago life was normal. Major corporations were in the news as their empires crumbled. Our President was facing an almost non-existent foreign policy, a questionable domestic policy and a low approval rate due in part to the debacle of an election.

A lot changed in 24 hours.

4 airlines are violently hijacked. 3 are crashed into the World Trade Center in New York city, and the Pentagon in Washington DC. The 4th is driven into the ground, we believe to avoid its hitting a 4th building.

The twin towers of the WTC collapse, killing thousands from all nations. Hundreds of civil servants are among those killed. They willingly entered a catastrophe and gave their lives so that others may live.

Shortly there after, the source of the attacks is located and targeted. In the skirmishes that followed, members of the armed forces from not only the US, but also our Canadian allies and other nations willingly shed their blood to both avenge the attacks and protect that freedom which we cherish and hold so dear.

The outpouring of support for us all over the world has been astounding. Piggy banks were emptied, life savings willingly donated. Hearts, homes and arms opened for those affected by the tragedies.

People, at least by me, have been a little more thoughtful, a little more introspective than they were a year ago. It’s cool to want to be a cop or fireman again. Flags are everywhere. Its almost like time has been turned back to a friendlier time.

There is a darker side to this too. In the waves of panic that followed the 9-11 attacks, laws were hurriedly passed that we are only now beginning to understand. No longer do the police require a search warrant…The newly created ‘Department of Homeland Security’ wants to operate ‘unhindered’ by the checks and balances that have functioned for over 200 years to keep too much government from becoming ‘BigBrother’. There is talk of national ID cards, even though they wouldn’t have prevented the attacks. There is serious talk of repealing the Bill of Rights. Adding a camera on every corner. Quadrupling the police forces. It is now legal to detain an individual indefinitely, without charges, without bail, without a lawyer. Just label him an ‘enemy combatant’. No matter if he was picked up buying milk at the supermarket. It’s no different than if he was picked up off the front line. We have no timeline for when this ‘war’ will end. During World War 2, the target was Germany, Italy and Japan. During the more recent Gulf War, it was the ejection of Iraq from Kuwait. Now, it’s ‘when terrorism is dead’. That’s a bit open ended. I don’t remember Congress declaring war…yet we’re at war. Perhaps I missed a rewrite somewhere or a declaration, but I’ve always been of the understanding that only Congress can declare war.

In one year, our foundations have been shaken, and our sense of security shattered. Many people are running around, desperate to do something, anything to make us feel safe and secure again.

I am reminded of the Army commander from Vietnam, who when asked why the village his unit was ordered to defend had been wiped out. “We had to destroy it to save it” was his reply.

On this day of remembrance, we must remember this lesson. If we destroy what America has always stood for and been in order to ‘save’ it, we will have invalidated the sacrifices of our people, in this campaign, and all those in the past. We will have thrown away the millions who have died in defense of freedom, of this nation, of this flag, and of all the free people who have fought beside us in the past, and the present.

If we allow this great nation to become a police state, we will have failed. We will have failed all those who died in the attacks. We will have failed those on Flight 93 who rather than be used as a weapon of mass destruction, took their own lives by smashing their plane into the ground. We will have failed those of our military who gave the supreme sacrifice so that we could continue to be a free people. We will have given the victory to those who attacked us. This must never be allowed to happen.

The price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance. It must never be allowed to be freedom itself.

Take a moment and remember those whose lives were irrevocably changed on this day. Take a moment to do one unselfish thing for someone else. Take a moment.

Peace.

 

[arnisador]

Did everyone notice that the death toll dropped by two? Two people were recently found to have been mis-listed and they only recently found out they were on the WTC victims list.

The recent earthquake in Italy, with tens of children trapped in rubble, reminded me too much of this event.