9/11: Ten Yars Later

On the morning of 9/11, I was blissfully sleeping, on the west coast of the USA. I had lots of things going on, and lots of irons in the fire. It all stopped cold when the Twin Towers went down. My life was turned upside-down within a month, and I lost everything. Maybe I didn't lose my life, like some good folks did, but my way of life was irrevocably changed forever.

Consider:
To take an airplane anywhere at all, I am subjected to invasive and prying security checks by an over-zealous protective force.

My internet and telephone conversations are illegally tapped and monitored.

We have troops half a world away, constantly in harms way, for something that is an illegal police action, started by a paranoid drunk and his buddies.

The news revels and recounts each death of the "enemy" and topples foreign governments without provocation.

We have a financial system in crisis, and we still can't move past whose fault stuff is.

All this in response to some terrorists blowing up a couple of buildings. Meanwhile, the political leaders who over-reacted are allowed to go free, when they deserve to be tried for High Treason and War Crimes.

What else but War Crimes would you call racial and religious profiling of a certain sect, in the Land of the Free, only to send them to a prison camp on foreign soil, to be tortured by foreign governments, under the flag of, and sanctioned by, this government?

What else but High Treason would you call lining your pockets from war mongering while still in office, while leading the country into a war for a personal vendetta that we still fight ten years later?

Make no mistake - The terrorists achieved their objective. They destroyed our way of life, and therefore our beliefs.

They won. We lost.

My personal battles are nothing compared to the greater losses this country has suffered, but that doesn't lessen the loss and grief I feel. I have NO intention of "commemorating" the date. I feel sick that some folks want to line their pockets from this. They should be ashamed.

A moment of silence, a single candle burning, the tolling of a bell, that's all that should happen. Not this media frenzy.

And let us cry. Stop telling us what to feel. Stop waving the flag. Let us feel our pain and move on. Let us mourn our dead. Bring home our troops and get them working again.

Stop pointing fingers. Who cares? Just get the job done. That is the American Way.