The Day We Will Never Forget

I was at work in a family practice on 9th Street in Oshtemo, Michigan. The other nurses and I were busy putting patients in their rooms and doing tasks for our physicians. It was by all accounts a typical Tuesday morning, at least until the portable radio at the nurses’ station interrupted its program, and a special news report told of an airplane that had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. One of the nurses turned the radio volume up and we paused for a moment to listen, but the announcer had very little information, so we went back to our duties.

When the second plane hit the Trade Center we all knew it wasn’t an accident. When the flight numbers of the airplanes were announced, the resident Physician’s Assistant – Eric Kennedy – told us his friend was one of the pilots. My doctor, Wayne Little, went to his computer and tried to bring up CNN, but the website had crashed. We had nothing but that little portable radio and the information brought to us by our incoming patients to keep us updated. The rest of the day was a numb blur as the announcer on the radio continued to tell of the tragedy that unfolded that September day. I remember bringing a patient into one of the exam rooms, and as I took her blood pressure I asked her if she had heard about what had happened. She said she knew nothing, so I filled her in on what I had learned. After all these years I think about that woman, and how she will always remember where she was when she found out about the attacks, getting her blood pressure taken in a doctor’s office.

It was about 6PM before our day was finally done, and we all rushed home to watch what happened on our televisions. Listening to the horror was nothing compared to the sight of seeing those planes slamming into the towers, the people jumping out of their smoking windows, then the towers collapsing and knowing there were thousands dying or trapped, and those who were on the ground blocks away running for their lives as walls of white dust and smoke rolled through the streets. I sat in complete shock that entire night watching the images over and over again, as my son and wife sat beside me, also rooted to the television.

If it were not for my employer Dr. Little I would have driven to New York to help. His calm, rational logic, and his absolute kindness toward me kept me rooted to my job. I cried for weeks and weeks, and even the anti-depressant he prescribed me didn’t put a dent in my grief. I kind of went a little crazy for awhile and did things I’m not very proud of, but still I carried my shattered heart with me wherever I went. I didn’t know a single person who died that day, but it felt as if they were all family members of mine. To this day I haven’t gotten over it, and a I don’t think I ever will. Even now, whenever I watch a documentary about September 11, my heart fills with broken anguish and I weep uncontrollably.

In two days our nation will observe the twelfth anniversary of the most horrific event in all our lives. There will be tears, there will be quiet reflection, there will be prayers and comforting embraces as we again become one body and one soul in our grief.

This anniversary, a group of disaffected Muslims will march through the streets of Washington DC, protesting the unfair treatment they believe they have suffered since 9/11. It was members of their own religion who committed this unspeakable act of terror, and even as they complain, they plot and scheme to impose their beliefs and laws upon the free world, even if it is by the sword. I am going there to meet them, but I won’t be alone. There will be tens of thousands of motorcyclists converging on our nation’s capital, and tens of thousands more civilians who will come from all over the country to remind them what their own kind did to us, and that we will not let them desecrate the memories of all who lost their lives that September day. I will be there to film the day, and I will let my readers and the world know just how powerful and wonderful and patriotic and outraged and determined Americans are, and how we will not let the complaints of a handful of haters sully the reverence and solemnity of the anniversary of that tragic day twelve years ago.

Pray for the safety and strength and courage of all who will face the Islamic protesters this Wednesday, September 1,, 2013 in the shadows of our sacred monuments to freedom and liberty. Pray for justice and pray for all that is good in our beautiful United States of America.

Open Letter to the People of the World

People of the world,

We are on the brink of another global conflict, perilously teetering on the edge of a precipice in which there will be no return. There is so much hate, so much malice among races and nations, combined with weapons designed to kill millions, that destruction and death seems an inevitability. Humanity is becoming irrelevant, and I weep for all the innocent lives that will be lost for nothing.

I am an American. There was a time in our storied history when we represented freedom, opportunity and sanctuary. Those times are now slipping away rapidly, and if that happens our nation will go the way of so many other empires known only now in history lessons. Scholars in future generations (if the human race survives itself) will debate the reasons why the United States crumbled and failed, but the truth is that we will have strayed away from the principles of our original constitution, that we forgot our nation was at one time sanctified by God, that we stopped being responsible for ourselves and began blaming others for our failures, and that we became enslaved by our own government because we allowed it to be. That, my fellow inhabitants of the world, is the reason for the mess we are in. We allowed it.

At this time, approximately half of our population is dependant on the government for sustenance, whether it be disability, food stamps, unemployment payments, welfare or other programs. The poor and indigent are enslaved by the system, smothered by medical debt and a lack of adequate wages. The middle class is almost non-existent, shackled by taxes, a severely depressed economy and runaway inflation. The dollar is being devalued every day, and our nation is literally owned by countries who desire our destruction. We have allowed it. Our cities go bankrupt, our industry abandons us, our political system is impotent and corrupt, our morals and values have descended into depravity, our church attendance is declining, our children’s children have forgotten how to look each other in the eye and our laws have become so cumbersome that the engine of justice just spins in place like a hamster wheel. And we allowed it.

My country, like yours, is filled with good, honest people who struggle and love and strive and hope and cry and dream and laugh and care. In essence, we are more like you than not. I am sure that your newspapers and TV stations and websites are rumbling against the United States, labeling us as imperialistic, militaristic, expansionist and even downright evil. If our elected leader and his incompetent advisors push the world into armed conflict, please remember that even though we allowed circumstances to come to this, it is due to the majority’s blatant sense of entitlement and widespread ignorance. Please try to understand that the rest of us are frantically trying to educate and emancipate them. It is not easy.

Despite the stupidity and ineptitude displayed by our government, the essence of America – indeed, the very core of our being – is rooted in freedom and patriotism and pragmatism and fairness and tolerance and respect and self reliance. Remember these things about us, if you can, during the next few days, weeks and months. Do not doubt, though, that if your nation decides to wage war against us, we will fight with ferociousness and determination, and your country will regret its decision, this I assure you. But I do not come here to threaten or boast. I want you to know, and it is important for you to understand this, that the vast majority of Americans do NOT want our government to interfere in the affairs of sovereign nations, politically or militarily. We allowed these jerks to come into office, but we did NOT put them there to practice oppression here or abroad. One of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, said “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” I ask you fellow citizens of the world to give us a chance to make things right within our own government. I know that you will probably think it is too late, and it may be, but we still have patriots, we still have brave men and women who are willing to give their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to bring the United States of America back to its foundation of ensuring life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all, and to take it forward as a shining example of true democracy for all. Allow us to let freedom ring once again.