Sometimes it is important to remember the ugly stuff

"Forget the past, and we are doomed to repeat it."

Today is the somber anniversary of September 11, 2001.

I remember that day. Unlike many people, I did NOT watch the days events unfold live. I was at work in a warehouse full of rumbling dust collectors and squealing saws. There were several radios in the shop and several workers gathered around. The shops large Mexican presence dictated the language on the radio. I had no idea what was going on. A glance at my cell phone for the time revealed that I had a voice message. It was a message from Ray that stopped me in my tracks. "I don't know exactly what is going on," he started, "But there are planes crashing into buildings and New York is under attack... "

What?

I went into the main office where the radio (in English) was repeating what I had just heard on voicemail. I felt a chill. The local commentator was talking about concern over local attacks and that the dams and power plants were on alert. P O W E R? D A M S? My Dad (who had worked for SRP for... well forever I guess) would go to the various sites from time to time for work. WHERE IS MY DAD? I must have called him 10 times that morning. (His ultra cheap cell phone did not work well in the building.) I finally got in touch with him. He was safe and sound in his cubical.

That night when I got home I watched the news for the first time. I saw the first WTC tower on fire and I gasped as I watched a plane disappear into the second. The fact that I just watched people die was not lost in my mind or heart.

Soon after the United States of America went to war. Our country declared war not on a foreign country, not on a distant shore, but rather on an action- a verb if you will. It was as if the American public, so jolted from the tragedy that occurred that September day, had signed a blank order for war on anyone who would carryout what our morals and laws concider a "terrorist action" on anyone- anywhere. I agree that we needed to act swiftly. Our country needed to band together to defend her people. Still I had fear over just where we were heading...

As the years have past, I guess I have just grown so saddened by the news of the brave young men and women who have lost their lives for.... revenge? defense?

I am fearful that we as a United people have done little more that occupy another foreign land and thus fueled the hatred of our people creating the terrorists of tomorrow.
Have we as a United People become so arrogant that we believe that we are somehow entitled to be the police of the entire planet? To force our morals, our politics, our laws, and our religions on a foreign land?

Has that ever ended well?

Have we learned anything from our history?

I have to wonder if we are doomed to repeat it.