The Conservative Bulwark

You're going to be inundated with memories, reports, ceremonies, and a lot of "where were you?" stories today. But that's ok. It's completely expected and necessary for these events to occur.

Eight years ago we were attacked in such a manner that we had not seen since 1941. Two planes flew into the World Trade Center. One plane, and her passengers, was heroically sacrificed in a field in Pennsylvania, and one plane crashed into the Pentagon. In just a few horrific moments, extreme acts of cowardice perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, changed the course of history yet again.

Many things have happened since that day. The United States began a campaign to actively pursue and eliminate terrorist groups around the world...as we should have been doing for decades. Two fronts were created in Afghanistan and Iraq and numerous other endeavors were started in more places than we'll probably ever know about. In the years that have followed, some could convincingly argue that most Americans have slid back into the same groove they were in on September 10th, 2001. We're a large nation with as many interests as people, so this mindset doesn't surprise me...although it does concern me. It makes me wonder what event would have to happen in order to shake this nation to its very core and not only demand, but actually receive the attention and dedication due to it. What would it take? How many would have to die?

It is important to understand that in order to completely defeat the people around the world who would employ such tactics, we must continue to be what made us great to begin with. Ingenuity, fortitude, compassion, understanding, and grit...these are the traits that have carried this nation through the centuries. There has never been a nation in the history of the world where everyone else's downtrodden, poor, ridiculed, and hated have come and created the greatest government and way of life that anyone has ever seen. No amount of misguided hatred from anyone, anywhere should be able to deter or defeat what we have. We are Americans. And as painful as that is to some, it's this attitude that has given them what they have in their lives today. We should never need a reminder of that.

I'll end with the closing story from President Reagan after his first inaugural:

"Under one such marker lies a young man-Martin Treptow-who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire. We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, 'My Pledge', he had written these words: 'America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.' The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together, with God's help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And, after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans. God bless you, and thank you."