Before I begin my own thoughts on the events that followed this fateful day so years ago, I would like to join the chorus of those who praise the men and women that so admirably did their jobs on September 11, 2001. In the face of horror and almost certain death, I honor those police officers, firefighters, and others who risked their lives and often gave them up to save as many as they could from attacked buildings. This is what we pay those people to do and they did their jobs well.
I am heartened by the efforts of thousands in the aftermath of the events of that day that strove, often without compensation, to bind up the wounds, both physical and emotional, of those who lost loved ones incidental to those events. It is a tribute to the ability of people of every stripe to put aside their own lives and interests to serve others in need and to reveal that which is best in the human spirit. It is people such as these that give me hope in our ability to persevere and overcome. I thank and honor such people from the bottom of my heart.
However, it is a sad commentary on the American nation that among our leaders and those who have greatest influence upon our people that there are a precious and rather silent few that display the kind of greatness that we saw so selflessly given on September 11, 2001 and the days that followed. For political gain and popularity, these people that the mass of our citizens often turn to for guidance and example spent their "capital" encouraging a path that enriches themselves and their friends, hides their misdeeds and embarrassments, and sorely offends the principles of truth and justice. These reprehensible behaviors are certainly not new to our world since the Twin Towers fell, but the long list of subsequent atrocities to our supposed national virtues bring a bright spotlight to how far America has fallen.
In response to the opportunistic "official" reports of the events of that fateful day, the world has become a much darker place. America invaded at least two sovereign countries and, as of this date, continues to ostensibly rule over those countries with armies of occupation. Out of reactionary fear, America demanded that the order of its own country change to create "homeland security", where every neighbor is a potential "terrorist" and respect of one person for another is finally eliminated by statute, not only in this country but crushed onto much of the rest of the world by our rightfully fading role as "the last super-power" and "the greatest nation on God's green earth". I say "America" as a nation rather than perhaps "government" as an entity because, although elected and cultural leaders proposed the idea of introducing totalitarian conditions in our airports and other public venues, the populace either provided vocal support to these concepts or just stood mutely as it happened and continues to spread like a virus over every land. If American leaders are guilty, the American people are also guilty by not doing more to restrain their leaders in snuffing out to the "light" of treating others with common respect and common decency.
As an example, the vaunted "9-11" commission was appointed to investigate the events of the day we now commemorate. Many rational questions about the destruction of the World Trade Center towers and nearby buildings have been asked by competent professionals and thinking people around the world. The investigation of these questions were ignored and avoided by those leaders on that commission, belittled by political and cultural leaders then and now, and those who still ask those questions and seek answers are publicly castigated by many of the populace as "un-American" conspiracy theorists. In this day in age, it is expected for conspiring politicians to seek to dispel any perception of incompetence or corruption, but it is a far more telling thing when a majority of Americans blind themselves to the failings of their leaders and attack any who dare question the "purity" and "rightness" of all things American. The evils done by American leaders are supported by the often-overt collusion of most Americans, who put loyalty to the "America" label ahead of loyalty to truth and justice. This may be only one example, but it is one that spans the globe and to which those away from these shores can easily point to justify our national "fall from grace".
So, my commemoration of September 11, 2001 will be, firstly, a simple call for the events of that day to be re-examined anew by people more willing to answer the call of truth. Once armed with that truth, I would humbly request that those found culpable in the happenings of that day and the years of reaction that followed be brought to an authentic justice that involves an open courtroom and impartial judge and jury. In light of such truth and justice, I would hope that new leaders, untarnished by collusion to profit from that day, would strive to rectify the wrongs that have been foisted upon this land and their people and other lands and their people, resolute in recorded word and deed to never do such grossly and overly reactionary atrocities ever again.