Fifteen years

Fifteen years have now passed since what may become the defining point of a generation. Fifteen years, almost to the minute as this is being written, terrorists attacked the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and were overcome by the passengers of an airplane over the hills of Pennsylvania. All that time, and we still cannot make any sense of it.

The trouble is that there is no sense to be made. To be sure, we can understand the reasons for even such terrible actions, in the same way that we can understand the reasons Hitler did what he did. Yet that is not the same as understanding.

How do we, how can we, come to actually understand rape or murder or thievery, mass murder or any any other evil which may be added to such a gruesome list, if we are to be decent human beings ourselves? It is only in a warped mind where such heinous acts may be justified. As such, reasonable people simply cannot understand them. It is beyond their ability; it is to them pure nonsense.

So the goal today should be to remember. Remember the victims and their families, remember the countless acts of heroism that day, remember even the perpetrators of such despicable carnage if for no other reason than to remind ourselves that such twisted souls do exist, seeking the ruin of those those not in lockstep with them. But hopefully, remember even so that their redemption may be possible. If we are the good people we claim to be, even that shouldn't be so difficult of a task on so difficult of an anniversary.

We are Right, if so for the Right Reasons

Well, what do we have here? An innocent event of longstanding tradition becoming something tragic. And who is at fault?

Someone wishing us to stop us living as we do, by making us afraid to go about our everyday activities.

They do not seem to realize that one of our everyday activities involves doing what can be done to make the everyday activities of our compatriots safe. They do not realize that that is our strongest quality: the one which will defeat them, those who oppose the mere safety of all involved merely because they do not like that we revel in such simple pleasures. Our strongest quality is that we deign to strive for a world free of such selfish acts.

This is a selfish act. As such, it will be shown, in the end, to be no threat to our way of life. And why?

Because it is not. If, that is, what we strive for is right and true.

The cowardly threaten; they sometimes act. Yet they will never prevail. It is that simple. If, or course, we really believe our way of life to be just and true, and for just and true reasons. If we don't believe that, then what they want and what we want are pretty close to the same. If all is actually up to the individual, then we have no ground with which to argue with terrorists. Their being individuals as well as we are, then this act is as likely to be right as our reaction to it. Yet if truth is beyond the person, they are wrong in what they did. If truth is beyond the person, we are right.

On which side of this question do you stand?

The Real Lesson of Sandy Hook

We must not give in. There will be pressure to give in, to give away just a little bit more of our freedom, a tiny sliver, perhaps, in order to prevent the next Newtown, Connecticut tragedy. The pressure we be there, and it will be great. We must not give in.

If someone wants to kill, maim, or endanger a great population of people, if they are bound and determined to do great harm, then they will do it. They will do it however they can. Timothy McVeigh used fertilizer; the Muslin extremists of September 11, 2001 used airplanes. Laws will not stop the insane. They simply will not.

But do you know what will be lost among the people as we write this? They will presume something which we have not said nor will we say. They will presume that we are talking about guns and gun crime.

We are not.

Do you believe for a moment that stricter gun control laws will prevent another horrible event such as the one our nation suffered Friday? To be sure, such actions may - only may, we tell you, and with serious reservations about that - somewhat affect things. Perhaps a mild offender against humanity will be thus restrained. A man with an itch to scratch. But will those determined to destroy every vestige of humanity within us be stopped at that? Will a man intending to destroy humanity stop at that?

He will not. He will do whatever he can to achieve his goals. And he will use whatever materials which are at his disposal to do so.

We are not dealing with rational people when we discuss the whats and whys of Sandy Hook Elementary. To consider them as though they were rational people will not protect us, or our children. They are irrational people, even should their actions be of the result of things not truly their fault. They may be insatiably selfish, or they may be evil; they may be truly insane. There may be many other things which we cannot fathom. Reason means nothing to their situations; yet non-reason means everything. We will not help ourselves by being unreasonable.

The President Fiddles

Can Barack Hussein Obama be James Earl Carter? He's certainly attempting his best imitation. The trouble is that, in this case, it's hardly the sincerest form of flattery. We have chronic unemployment, Muslim terrorists attacking our embassies and consulates, and a lack of domestic and international leadership which the world is freely exploiting. We have an America on the wane with a President blaming everyone except himself; perhaps he does want to create a nation in decline. His vaunted intelligence community, credited so much for the killing Osama Bin Laden, did not see the obviously planned attack on Benghazi coming and appears unwilling to accept that everything happening in Cairo and Yemen and Libya, as well as in at least seven other nations, has anything to do with embarrassing the US on the Anniversary of 9/11 but is only in response to a film which no one seems sure has actually been made. He will not admit that the Muslim world may well be testing America's resolve, a resolve they see weakened after almost four years of pandering. Some people do not understand nice, Mr. President. Yet with all these attacks on the US and US citizens Mitt Romney is the one who has supposedly gone of the deep end. Why is the President so afraid of the free speech of a fellow candidate for the White House when he is so unwilling to support the free speech of Americans who may criticize Islam? Why not try to understand the passions of Mitt Romney as much as you try to understand the passions of those who hate us, Mr. President? Mr. Obama can say what he wants, but he would surely be criticizing Mr. Romney if the shoe were on the other foot. You campaigned in 2008 for your job, Mr. President, and are doing so again for the next term of office. Take the heat. It's essentially what you yourself wanted. We need to remember more than the last four years if we are to make a sound choice for President in November 2012. We need to remember what the America of 1979 looked like. It is strikingly similar to the America of 2012.

9/11 Made No Sense

Ten years have now passed since what may become the defining point of a generation. Ten years, almost to the minute as this is being written, terrorists attacked the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and were overcome by the passengers of an airplane over the hills of Pennsylvania. Ten years, and we still cannot make any sense of it.

The trouble is that there is no sense to be made. To be sure, we can understand the reasons for even such terrible actions, in the same way that we can understand the reasons Hitler did what he did. Yet that is not the same as understanding.

How do we, how can we, come to actually understand rape or murder or thievery, mass murder or any any other evil which may be added to such a gruesome list, if we are to be decent human beings ourselves? It is only in warped mind where such heinous acts may be justified. As such, reasonable people simply cannot understand them. It is beyond their ability; it is pure nonsense.

So the goal today should be to remember. Remember the victims and their families, remember the countless acts of heroism that day, remember even the perpetrators of such despicable carnage if for no other reason than to remind ourselves that such twisted souls do exist, seeking the ruin of those those not in lockstep with them. But hopefully, remember even so that their redemption may be possible. If we are the good people we claim to be, even that shouldn't be so difficult of a task on so difficult of an anniversary.

We Can't Win the War on Terror

The war on terror is so important it seems that even the President is acknowledging its importance with a troop surge in Afghanistan. This comes along with his recent admittance in Oslo that there is evil in the world, a comment unheard of from a modern Democrat. But the worst thing about this fight is the glaring fact that, when all gets said and done, we cannot win the war on terror.

The simple fact is, like evil, there will always be new forces and people willing to do things to harm other people, and impair their movement. We need only see what happened in Detroit in the last few days to understand as much. We cannot, in the long run, win something so amorphous and intangible as a war on individual human action. So, what do we do?

We fight it anyway. Just like we fight other evils. Just like humanity has had to do since the dawn of time.

The sad fact is that, as there will always be Caesars, Napoleons, and Hitlers, there too will always be little criminals, little renegades who desire nothing more than calling attention to themselves and their ultimately petty causes solely because they want to. There will always be those who think in terms of violence only, and take what pleasure they can from it in ways and forms which more civilized folks can't comprehend. That is almost entirely why we have police forces, armies and navies, and neighborhood watch programs.

It is the nature of the beast, simple as that. And that is why we must be better people and oppose it at every turn. That is why our resolve must never waver and we must always pursue and eradicate what we can. That is why we must meet their force with greater force.

We should not be surprised when new threats come from the darkest corners of the world; they rise from the dankest basements of the human mind. Where we must offer surprise, it must in shining light on evil and causing it to wither. Take away the raw hatred and replace it with the undying truth: we are better than they. We will oppose them no matter what.