Today marks the 5 year anniversary of something most of us will never forget. Something we shouldn’t forget. However, I have noticed something disturbing in this country since September 11th, 2001. That day, I was in Biloxi, MS. I was in a class. I vaguely remember someone outside of our classroom saying something in the hallway about one of the Trade Center towers being hit by a plane. Naturally, we all think of it as a tragedy. Most of us having been desensitized don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to these types of things unless it directly affects us. This one was different. Immediately you think of how many people are in one of those building. The lack of warning, no chance of escape. Not long after, we all heard about the second plane. Then we heard about the others, along with the rumors of another heading toward the White House. I remember going to lunch with some classmates that day at the bowling alley, and we all had our eyes glued to the tv. It was surreal, everyone was in shock, and there was a certain air of anger. It didn’t take much for us to figure out what had happened. Security was tightened like a noose, and all anyone could do was wait for answers.

In the following weeks, I noticed American flags popping up everywhere. On people’s homes, on their cars, on shirts, bumper stickers, and I’m sure various other places I can’t remember off the top of my head. We decided to go into Afghanistan, and most people supported the idea. We all had our focus. From time to time, something bad happens, and America comes together. It happened with World War II when Pearl Harbor was attacked. It happed again in 2001. Not only that, but the world saw what happened, and many were disgusted.

The disturbing thing I have noticed is the change in mind since 2001. Slowly, the flags started to disappear. The flags waving from the cars were torn, shriveled, filthy. Once in a while I’d find one on the ground. As people bought new cars, they didn’t buy new bumper stickers, and no new flags were purchased to place in their windows. They were soon forgetting to hang their flags outside. And then America decided to start pointing fingers. I am guilty of expecting all of this to come to a quick end. I figured we would find bin laden immediately, and justice would be done. Most of us expected this to be some sort of victorious conclusion and it would all be over. Safe.

Currently, this country is divided on what is happening in the world. It is divided on it’s opinion, and support, of The President. Why are we divided? Why are we so quick to turn our backs on someone when something they do is viewed by many as a bad decision? I ask you this; Will you step into the shoes of the President? Will YOU take on his responsibilities? America is so quick to judge. But America is unwilling to keep it’s face to the wind. I doubt our President expected a terrorist attack to happen on September 11th. America judged his reaction as one of complacency. Try holding your composure while talking to a classroom full of kids, and hearing that 4 planes were hijacked and thousands of people were just killed. Try imagining that YOU are the one responsible for keeping your country glued together. Try to imagine that you are the person who has to figure out how to respond to such an event. It’s not an easy job, and no one is perfect. How many of us have turned in something late at work, or called in sick but were in all honesty just too lazy to go to work on a given day? And you have the right to judge a man who has the weight of the country, and much of the world on his shoulders? You should be ashamed of yourselves.

No matter what my friends, enemies, fellow Americans, the world is always going to be a dangerous place to live. It always has been, and it always will be in some state of conflict. History has taught us this. Peace activists don’t get it. You can claim your rights to intelligence and common sense, but you need to know your history first. Know that war has always been a part of the human race. It will NEVER stop unless you remove all living things. Don’t forget people, life itself is about survival of the fittest. That is how it is in the animal kingdom. From humans all the way down to single cell organisms. The strong survive. We are losing our strength. We are not standing up for what we believe because WE DON’T BELIEVE IN ANYTHING! The things people fight over are pointless and miniscule in comparison to what reality is.

Learn to focus on what we can do to try to make this world a better place. Stop focusing on your lawsuits, your complaints and “war” against how fast food restaurants cook their food. Spend some time with your children instead of sitting online all day and night, or watching tv. Read a book. Stop whining about how bad YOU have it and remember there are soldiers dying overseas for YOU every day! These people volunteer to serve, so that you don’t have to. The serve willingly, knowing that they may die someday doing their job. And they don’t ask for anything in return. If they don’t do it, and you won’t do it, who will? What footsteps will your children follow if you teach them not to stand up? People want to blame everyone else for everything that’s gone wrong in their lives. Your children are overweight, so you blame McDonalds. YOU take them there. What kind of standards are you teaching them?

We have all lost focus people. We’re paying attention to everything else because we don’t want to think about what’s right in front of us. We don’t want to take responsibility for who we are and what we’ve become. I said at the beginning we do not want to forget what happened on September 11th 2001, but we have. We have emerged from one of the worst tragedies this country has ever seen, into complacency. We show our patriotism when everything looks like it’s going to turn out great for us. But we lose our pride magically forget how much we care as the time passes. The complacency turns to negativity, and then we fall apart. Is this what you want?
No matter what you think, no matter what you want to believe, thousands of people died because someone hated us enough. Someone hated our rights, someone hated who we are. The attacks were not meant for the sole purpose of killing people. Someone wanted us to live in fear. We have become complacent and lost our focus. It makes me sick to know that all of those people died, and this is what we’ve become. Believe in something. Believe in this country. Believe in God. Human beings have gone through hell to make this country great. Do the people who have died so you can continue to live deserve not to be remembered?

Where are your flags?