The Day America Stood Still

The day America stood still Judy and I were leaving a small town in south central Nebraska and heading toward Grand Island. Just as we swung onto I-80 eastbound and turned on the radio. To our shock they were reporting the second plane had just struck the second tower. We stopped at a shopping center and they had a TV setup in the common area, so we watched it for about an hour. But we were heading to Mount Rushmore and had many miles to go before sunset. Mount Rushmore was closed due to the attack, so we ended up in Wall South Dakota and watched the TV in the motor home of what was unfolding.

I was extremely shocked at the horror I was watching, the two tallest building collapsing into a pile of rubble,  the Pentagon on fire, a plane of heroes that crashed in Pennsylvania, and our president in hiding in Nebraska. I knew at that moment that this was a life altering event. I just didn't know how altering it has become.

But more happened on that day than being attacked by a radical group of terrorist Muslims, it was the day our country started to change from an open and free society to a fearful and paranoid society that is willing to forsake their freedom for some perceived level of security. Congress rushed to pass a sweeping bill that allows the government to imprison you without charges indefinitely, search your home without notice, nor a warrant, they can check all your electronic communications and restrict your assembly and speech.

Not only did nearly 4,000 people loose their lives that day, but another 4,000 soldiers lost their lives in response and thousands more who are permanently injured. Add to that millions of civilians that have died as a result of that day in America. Of course many of them could have been saved and not hurt had our president been honest with himself and the American people and not invaded Iraq.

Much like a soldier returning from horrible combat with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), American society is showing a collective sign of this disorder. The fear and anger has boiled up from our suppressed emotions and lashing out in wacky ways in our political process. Otherwise how can you explain why rational and reasonable people are making irrational and illogical proclamation and if not that, they are so afraid from those who do that they are running scared from those who have lost their sanity, who in turn are screaming insane statements to exacerbate the fever pitched fear of the masses.

Today the war is still being fought on American soil by those with great fear and hate demanding that the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan be moved. Other mosques across America are under violent attack. There is one small Christian congregation in Florida who has made "international" headlines that on 9/11 they will burn piles of the Quran, the most holy scripture book of the Islamic faith. This will only aid in the recruitment of young men to become terrorist to attack America again, our troops in the battle field, and citizens doing nothing but traveling around the world. What does these actions say to the Muslim American's who are decorated service men and women protecting these wacko's constitutional right to be ass holes?

Not only did we loose all these lives the past 9 years, we lost who America is, or as we told ourselves what we wanted to be, a tolerant, open and free society by melting many diverse cultures and heritages into a country with a focus and goal for the common good. America RIP!