Today, we’re going to be bombarded with 9/11 remembrances. Me? I remember getting up that morning, turning on the morning news for 5 minutes and learning about the first plane… and then the second plane, and thinking it must have been terrorism. Listening to the news on the van into work. In relatively short order, turning around and going home, as we closed for the day not knowing what else would happen.
It has now been 5 years. I think it is time to ask ourselves, as part of honoring the memory of those who died just for going to work or boarding a plane, and for those who died trying to save those who went to work/boarded a plane, and for those who made it out alive:
- Have the actions we have taken in response to this event made the world, and this country, a safer place?
- Have the actions we have taken in response to this event been true to what makes America the noble experiment in freedom and democracy that it is?
- Have the actions we have taken in response to this event served to help the survivors, and are we prepared to better help the survivors of future natural and man-made disasters?
- Have the actions we have taken in response to this event demonstrated that we have learned from past mismanagement and past mistakes so as to reduce the likelihood of future similar incidents?
- Have the actions we have taken in response to this event led us to adequately protect other similar targets, i.e., those with high symbolic or publicity value?
- Have the actions we have taken in response to this event led us to rethink our mindset of complacency, our mindset that was mired in the thought process of conventional warfare with professional armies fighting with a national agenda and accepted rules of warfare?
If the answer to any of these questions is “No”, then what do we need to do to address the problems that still remain? How do we improve and move along the line towards safety and security, towards the correct balance of freedom and firmness, towards protection and peace?
A moment of silence for those who did not deserve what has happened to them, as a result of the tragedy five years ago today, and as a result of its aftermath and ripples.
