Look and You Shall See

I recently drove a charter to New York City. After dropping my passengers off I had about 10 hours to do whatever I wanted to. My fellow bus driver had never really experienced the Big Apple. So I asked him what he wanted to see and he expressed a desire to see the World Trade Center site.



The World Trade Center site is by far a location filled with emotions. Sadness, rage, remorse, anger, frustration, guilt and many more. Everyone who visits the site sees it in their own eyes. For anyone person to suggest one view is better than the other really doesn't see the true meaning of what happened there and in Washington and Pennsylvania that day in history.



Being a 35 year veteran of the fire service I can feel the pain of the loss of comrades, men and women who I never had the pleasure of meeting or serving with, giving the ultimate in the service of others. Being a human being I can share in the grief and loss that walks in stillness on this site. The thousands of lives lost that day tore at the fabric that makes us a caring society. As a member of that society I can feel the anger and rage and outright disgust for our government for allowing this to happen.



We are a free and open society and hold that near and dear to our hearts. Everyone wants their privacy. Free from Big Brother. The ability to just get in a car, train, plane or boat and just go. No travel papers, no authorizations allowing us to freely go wherever we want. We each feel that the sanctity of the individual is paramount. Our constitution provides us with those protections.



As Americans I feel we live in an extended neighborhood we call the USofA. Countless persons gave their lives protecting this neighborhood from real and perceived threats. We've never witnessed warfare in our neighborhood since the Civil War. We have felt safe and secure here at home. To our North we have the Canadians. A country much like us. To the South we have Mexico. A country that has it's share of problems but again very similar to our own ideals.



So when these idealist rag heads from the other side of the world came into our neighborhood and spread their death and destruction we were violated. We had an intrusion of the most personal kind. No wonder many of us feel the government let us down. They couldn't keep this from happening and here, nine years later, the question needs to be asked; "are we any safer today than on September 10, 2001?"



Our elected officials have abrogated their responsibility to us by fighting among themselves for the gains only they receive each time they get re-elected.



To live in America is more than a birthright or a naturalization, it is a privilege. A privilege that has attached to it the need for each and everyone of us to look out for each other and seek the common good. Our government must make our borders secure much like we secure our back yards and lock our houses at night. We will never stamp out evil in this world. But we can learn how to keep it at bay. We can learn to respect other countries way of living and not try to foist upon them our way of doing things. We should once again lead by example. We should think of our country and it's citizens before looking beyond our own shores. I don't mean isolationism but a more progressive way of dealing with the world. Dealing with other countries as a neighbor who can lend a helping hand in times of trouble or need and not be the worlds policeman.



There are too many other economies in the world that have gained substantial wealth that can afford to police their neighborhoods. Why do we need to be in Japan, Europe, Korea and many other far flung areas of the world? How many other countries have military bases around the world like the USof A?



There are real threats out there in the world. These fundamentalists will never stop trying to destroy our way of life and we will never eliminate their desire to kill all the infidels. So what we need to do is to tighten up things at home and have our neighbors do the same. We can't and shouldn't have to do it for everyone.



We have arguably the best society on earth. We are resilient, innovative, adaptive, compassionate, caring and giving and above all forgiving. These are tenants of our nations religious background. America has been labeled around the world as an "Evil Empire" and in some ways it probably has some credence to that position. We have let much of our domestic and foreign policy be crafted and implemented by the greed of Big Oil, Banks and Insurance Companies. It is the over exuberance of these captains of capitalism that have denigrated the fundamentals of capitalism.



As with anything in life tolerance and moderation need to be applied along with a moralism that is sometime overlooked.



So when I look out over the World Trade Center Site today I see two views: The construction to replace what was once there as a symbol of our resilience as a society and I see a failure of our society in allowing our government to become so self centered, on it's own existence, that the People who make up our society and therefore our government are left standing at the altar.



We owe more than can be imagined to those souls who sacrificed so much that day. A price we as a nation can only repay by keeping their spirit and our ideals alive. Never giving in to the fanatical extremism that precipitated the events of that day. In keeping that spirit alive we must not fall victim to becoming extremists ourselves.