***************************
IMHO, this country, the United States of America, is more or less back to the way it was on September 10th, 2001 and the months and years before that date.
There were not only explosions of airliners and people's lives that day, there seemed to be a very noticeable national EXPLOSION of religous faith, unified, mystic, steeped in human nature perhaps, or based upon fear of further destruction or the thirst for self-preservation; that this had the churches and synogogues PACKED in America coast-to-coast and with all kinds of people reaching out, following 11 September 2001. It also saw the creation of a New Humbled Attitude you could reach out and touch, it was so clear in America back then.
I remember hearing about the long lines for "confession" for even busy stockbrokers in New York City at Catholic churches on their lunch hours, standing silently in their suits with their briefcases. Everyone thought we were just another terrorist away from another attack and their own obliteration.
The American TV shows got rid of filthy jokes and attitude, the violent movies were gone in favor of old, uplifting American classics or patriotic music. Firefighters and policemen got a thumbs up in anytown in America. A liberal could not even open his trap for a second with a bad word about our tested Commander-in-Chief President Bush. People were volunteering right and left. Madison Avenue discovered that the new national marketing theme for almost every product or service was "FAMILY", and "SECURITY" and "HOME" and "FAITH"--so-called "What Really Matters".
It is too sad there was a tremendous and cruel tragedy to bring this about, but for about a year or two there, I really liked this New America, which perhaps wasn't really "new" at all...it was America returning to the Old America we once really knew, and reversing it's course, it's slide into nihilism, it's slouching toward Gomorrah.
But gradually, we got away from "9-11 America", didn't we? The nasty and degrading movies and TV jokes, banal reality shows, filthy rap music, the unpatriotic comments by actors/actresses and country music stars, idiotic court rulings and Administration statements/trial balloons on national security and border protection, the churches started to thin out and people back to driving around town with their rushed, nasty, SUV attitude, 401(k) is God mindset and "me-first" syndrome. The social vomit returned to us, washing again up on our shores. And we welcomed it back it. It's the ECONOMY, Stupid! (Heard that before? What happened right after that attitude?) Oh well. Some "change".
Sorry to wax philosophical or judgemental a bit, but I think I have seen this American national characteristic change dramatically in the last three years, only to slowly but surely change back to its original position, if not worse. One only hopes a massive terrorist attack does not occur again, but I wonder if America will get serious about its spiritually and take it down from the Sunday shelf for good this time, to be used (as a weapon against the evil out there) every day of the week and everyone one goes?
Can we reverse course?
Why does it take terrible acts of massive destruction and human cruelty to get us back on track and in the right direction?