Posted on 09/12/2001 10:06:14 AM PDT by BlueNgold
Thomas Jefferson once said ... "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
We have lost enough patriots, it is now the tyrants turn.
The moments that define modern American history are now 3. My grandparents, although only 1 survives, could each recount with amazing clarity and detail where they were the moment they learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. My parents hold similar regard for the assassination of President Kennedy. The events that define the lives of Americans all come back to the same place. They remember these moments because they were afraid. A sense of safety and security define a free society. When our safety is called into question on a national basis it can only be because our very way of life, our precious freedom is at risk.
Until yesterday I wondered what that was like, to have a single moment define your memories, your opinions, your religion, and your politics. Now I know. Yesterday morning I sat at my computer as I do every day, safe in my own little world. Just before 9 A.M. I opened up the internet to check on the news of the day as I always do. The first reports were incomplete and disjointed, but somehow I knew to be worried. I turned on the radio and learned more details, and then I knew to be scared.
History for me is now and forever more in two parts: Before the Attack, and After. I imagine that anyone alive today feels much the same way.
The dilemma remains: What to do? Where to go?
History is a fantastic teacher, and it gives us the clear answer: We should be Americans.
Yes, it's that simple. Every time America has truly been tested we have responded. When America has been attacked, we have fought for liberty and won. When our way of life has been placed under siege we have destroyed those who challenged us. Americans of every generation have been faced with a moment that tested their strength, and the greatness of America itself can be attributed to the fact that each and every generation has passed the test.
This is an old test with a new twist, but I am confident that we are up to the task. Our president and other elected leaders will be faced in the coming days and weeks with moral dilemmas that most of us cannot imagine. Americans will be making life and death decisions in support of freedom itself, and they need our support. We are now on the brink of war with an enemy that considers death in battle to be a free ticket to heaven. Fear of death is not a deterrent. Victory means destruction of not only our enemies, but of their ability to rejuvenate their movement and threaten us in the future. We must have the national will to see this fight through to the end. We must remain unified in defense of not just our nation and our flag, but in preservation of the very concepts that our beautiful stars and stripes represent.
The time is now and the day is here. We will emerge from this moment in history as one of two things: Victims who can be trampled on, or ...
We will truly be worthy of the title our ancestors earned: American
I have lived through two of these events, I was 8 years old at the time of President Kennedy's assassination, I was in class when they told us all to go home. The teacher said "The president has been shot."
Yesterday I was sitting at work here about 0620 when I first heard the news. Now I am active duty Navy, and awaiting my retirement date.
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