Monday, July 24, 2006

So why is it ...

... nearly unforgivable to suggest that the events of 9/11 are not the worst thing that ever happened to this nation?

Surely no one can make the case that those events, heartbreaking as they were, terrifying to the point of being surreal, cannot be considered the worst thing that has happened to this nation, the most horrible thing our government and America herself has had to deal with?

In sheer loss of life, can anyone say that the attack on the World Trande Center and the Pentagon or the loss of life when Flight 93 went down in Pennsylvnia is worse than the loss of American lives in Vietnam?
  • Or the Second World War?
  • Or the First World War?
  • Or the Civil War?
  • Or the War of 1812?

Of course no one can, and soon we'll be able to point to the loss of American lives in Iraq and be able to say that it, too, has surpassed the number of lives lost on September 11, 2001.

So, if it isn't the number of lives lost, what is it? That we were attacked on our own soil? But that happened during the War of 1812; we managed a ferocious attack on ourselves during the Civil War with the a horrifying death toll. We survived the shock of the attack on Pearl Harbor and responded with all the courage and military might we could muster.

Americans did not cower, did not shirk our duty or shrink from the call. Those who had objections of conscience declared them and dealt with the consequence, those who enlisted to fight or answered the call of the draft, fought.

We are not a nation of cowards. And yet ... nearly everyone you speak with will talk of the terror of that day, September 11, 2001, as though nothing like it had every happened before, ever, anywhere, to anyone.

Why do you think that is?

Have we lost our nerve? Have we lost heart? Are we no longer daughters and sons of the American Revolution?

Something has happened to the national spirit.

What do you think it is?