A Decade Later and All We've Got is a Gaping Hole In The Ground. (Vanity)

Alright, what happened on 9/11/2001 was tragic, horrible, nightmarish, unprecedented, disturbing, outrageous, angering, saddening . . . whatever you adjective you wish to use . . . it was all of those and more, but America seems to have become so filled with the mentality of victimhood that we have lost sight of ourselves and our greatness.

I know I'm going to make a lot of folks angry with this post, but it is time for America to grow up.

There is nothing wrong with commemorating a tragic event. We still commemorate the attack against Pearl Harbor. We--some of us--still remember D-Day, that day of awful struggle and great victory. We remember Guadalcanal, Bataan, the Philippines, and Okinawa . . . we remember, but we don't wallow in them.

There is nothing wrong with commemorating those days which have directly impacted on our national identity and our national pride, but pride is what is missing in America today.

America, we took a tremendous cheap shot when we weren't looking . . . we stumbled in shock. Perhaps our knees got weak and our eyes momentarily began to glaze over, but then we shook our head, righted ourselves, straightened out spines, looked around to see who the cowards were who blindsided us, and then set about making them pay.

After the initial attack, America came back swinging and started on the path towards recovery. Our economy, which was already languishing in the beginnings of a recession, took a trillion dollar blow with the loss of our financial center, but we shook all of that off, recovered from the economic loss and moved on . . . at least physically.

The problem is that our nation is filled with emotional children--mostly on the left, but not entirely. It seems as though the adults have lost control and only the children remain. We wallow in a morass of maudlin self-pity and "poor me"-ism.

When children suffer a loss, they aren't emotionally mature enough to understand or to cope with it, so they live in that pain for a long time. They continue to suffer until an adult--their parents, their teachers, their relatives--comes along and reassures them everything will be alright and then shows them how to cope and understand their loss.

When adults suffer a loss, they weep, they morn, they may even withdraw for a while, but eventually they come to understand that loss and pain are a part of life and that we must move on with our lives . . . never forgetting the past, but never wallowing in it, never trapped by it. They may be consoled for a short time by their friends of families, but it is up to them to find their own path to recovery.

America has become spoiled and seems to want to wallow in a mire of self-pity and self-absorption. We have been lectured by a media which continually talks down our nation and our greatness, focuses on limitations, and repeatedly tells us that our time of greatness has passed. Our educators teach our children of the evils of success and the nobility of suffering and lack.

They attack institutions which form the core of our greatness, our churches, our businesses, and our self-starters. We are told that we should not expect to be as successful as our parents or their parents--that we have to accept less, to aspire to be less; that, instead of American exceptionalism, America is bad because we have too great of a "carbon footprint."

We are repeatedly instructed that we use too much energy, that we are doomed by a mythical dragon called "man-made global warming," and that we must all learn to live with less--because that is only "fair."

The liberals tell us that we have no right to be the greatest, the wealthiest, the strongest, the most successful, the most free nation on Earth and indeed in history. No, we must hate ourselves because we take more than our "fair share." We must limit ourselves and be more like Europe. We must . . . live lives of "shared sacrifice" rather than individual greatness.

Folks, this is collectivism. This is Marxism at its very worst, its most pernicious, and dishonest. We can't do it ourselves, we need the government to do it for us and because no one can excel, we must let government show us how to do it with less--so that others can have "more."

When we suffer, we are supposed to let daddy and mommy government tell us that everything is going to be okay and to let them deal with everything while they take care of us.

This maudlin, liberal-driven, juvenile, self-loathing mentality has left us with a gaping hole where the World Trade Center used to be.

Think of the typically American, arrogant--brashness of that name, "The World Trade Center." Not "The American Trade Center," not the "New York Trade Center," but the "World Trade Center." The very name brings to mind the image of the greatness, the arrogance, the can-do attitude that has exemplified our national spirit for over two centuries.

But . . . what do we have today? We have so much bureaucratic red tape and have become so preoccupied with political correctness and acceptance that we have been unable to do in 10 years what should have been done in three. Think of that, the Empire State Building was completed in just 18 months. The first tower of the WTC was ready for occupation just 2 years after construction began and the second tower was ready in 3. Six of the seven buildings that comprised the entire center were completed in just about a decade.

Today, a decade later, we have a park and a giant gaping hole in New York City and in Pennsylvania where the heroes of Flight 93 rebelled against the hijackers and forced the plane to crash into the ground at the expense of their lives, we still have . . . an empty field.

Tomorrow in New York City, instead of a building opening, instead of a glorious pair of towers gleaming in the sunlight standing taller, prouder, more brazen and arrogant than ever, we will witness a ceremony in which there will be no firemen or policemen--the heroes who braved the nightmare in their efforts to save thousands of people, who strove to rescue and save lives and no clergymen to eulogize and pray for our loss--political correctness is the disease that rots our culture more than any other--none of those who work to make a difference in our lives standing beside those who lost their loved ones in the attacks.

No, no room for any of them, no room for the heroes. No room for God. Just room for the families of the victims--as it should be--and just room for the politicians, poets, and a symphony orchestra just enough room for those who seek to glorify themselves in the aftermath of what others paid for with their lives.

Really??? No room for firemen? No room for policemen? No room for God? But room for an orchestra?

Hey, Mayor Bloomberg, maybe if you had not spent so much time wrapped up in your little political correctness obsession and your kowtowing to Muslim Clerics, maybe if you didn't spend so much time advocating for a mosque to be built at "ground zero," maybe if you had gotten up off your ass and built the damn buildings instead of holding endless competitions to see who could come up with the most artistic--self-indulgent design, you would have room for those who sacrificed so much for their fellow citizens.

Time to throw off the sack cloth and ashes folks, time to remove the death shrouds and the liberal handcuffs and get back to doing what made America great.

Time to throw out those who place political correctness over greatness and responsibility and replace them with people who still believe in American exceptionalism.

Time to elect people who see America as the great nation it is rather than the source of evil around the world.

Capitalism isn't evil, it is the most empowering force for good in the world. It allows every man and woman to achieve exactly as much as he or she is willing to work for and aspire towards. The only limits it places on a person are those he sets on himself.

Exceptionalism isn't bad, it is the direct result of hard work and industry. It is born from faith in God, in oneself, and in the opportunity to achieve.

Strength isn't bad, it is born of success and the noble desire to defend oneself, one's neighbor and to protect those who are unable to protect themselves.

America isn't evil, it has been the greatest force for good in the world. We have expended more capital, sacrificed more blood, and spent more time in the uplifting and defense of others than any other nation in history. When disaster strikes anywhere in the world, it is America that always rises to the occasion. It is the American people who spend the time, send the treasure and their sons and daughters to assist those in need.

It is not "folklore" that America is "God's Country," it is the truth. America is a beacon of freedom and opportunity towards which the world has looked for over a century. We are that Shining City on the Hill."

Memorialize our losses, give praise to our heroes, give thanks to God for this great nation, then BUILD THE DAMN BUILDINGS and stop wallowing in self-pity.

This sums it up well. Tomorrow, for the first time, I will not commemorate 9/11. I certainly will not watch any of the televised events--nothing but maudlin posturing by politicians capitalizing on the genuine grief of victims' families.

The fact that the first responders and clergy were barred is incredibly disturbing. It eats at my stomach like an ulcer...What does it mean...What does it mean...What does it mean? I don't want to ask or know what it means, but I know in my heart, and this knowledge is more terrifying than all the jihadists and all the acts of terror they might commit.

People of my generation are confused and saddened by the condition of America in this day. It's like being in another world. An hour ago I watched a video of a Messianic Rabbi who connected what happened on 9/11 to Isaiah 9:10. It was pretty amazing, some of the things he brought out. "The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." (Isa.9:10)

He talked about the arrogance represented in that verse and how we have done the same thing. God removed His wall of protection from America because of our plunge into moral decay. Without His protection 9/11 was bound to happen. Then after that warning, our response should have been national repentance. Instead, some of our leaders (John Edwards & Tom Dashle) used the very words of Isa. 9:10 in an arrogant way to proclaim that we would rebuild with hewn stone. Verses following are clear that God did not like that kind of arrogance. He promised to make things even worse for Israel.

The Bible holds "foreshadows" of how things will go with God. We need to pay attention. Would you believe that They put a huge hewn stone at the site where the towers fell, with an inscription of our intent. Did you know that there was a Sycamore tree in the garden of the WTC that was knocked down by the falling towers and that they planted a cedar (evergreen) tree in it's place? If we read God's response to that kind of attitude, we are still in for a world of hurt if we don't turn back to God.

I agree that we could have the same "can do" attitude and ability we used to have, but only if we have God on our side. We cannot do it without Him.

There will come a re-birth of America! We will go back to the inner greatness that is still to be found in our land. A new patriotism will sweep the nation. In that day things like PC. Multiculturalism, Affirmative Acton will be swept into the ask can of history. This will become a new, Christian Nation as well. It will take a lot to achieve this—but it will come. When did we start down this road to destruction? I thing it was with LBJ and Civil Rights, The Drug Culture and the Hippies, The Anti-War movement in the 1960s and 70s. I think it came with the War on Poverty and our loss in Vietnam. Carter finished the job—words became more important than deeds. We became selfish, we lost our way and worshiped before the altars of wealth. A change is coming and when it comes it will be fast.

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