Remembering 9-11

This Saturday was as you know the 9^th anniversary of the September 11^th Terrorist attacks. My initial plan for Saturday was to make sure I had my flag out and perhaps to pause at 8:45 (I knew that was close to the time of the first impact) and think of all those affected by that terrible day. Plans of course are only a starting point and are subject to change. What actually happened is this:

I was up early to take my wife and son to the airport for a flight to the West coast to visit Grandma for a week. Since I was up and the day was supposed to be hot I started to work in the yard. By 9:15 it was already getting pretty hot so I stopped for a quick dip in the pool and went inside for a cool drink. I turned on the TV (for company I suppose) and quickly found myself watching a re-broadcast of September 11 coverage in real time. I was immediately taken back to my own reaction to the events. It happened that I was starting a new job within the Army’s Recruiting Command in September of 2011. I had flown to Milwaukee on the 10^th with a team of inspectors to review recruiting operations for the operations run out of that city. On the morning of the 11^th I was in a hotel lobby having a quick breakfast with my new boss. Of course we were in uniform and just before we left the hotel manager came over and in said he felt like we should know that an airplane had just crashed into one of the World Trade towers. Our initial reaction was far from exciting as we said something like “Hmm, that’s interesting”. As we drove into the city we started listening to a local radio news report as we be

gan to wonder among ourselves what was happening. We were all thinking small private plane and discussed possible causes like incapacitation of the pilot, mechanical malfunction, and even at some point the possibility of a disgruntled employee taking a drastic action. By the time we reached midtown the news was reporting the impact of a second plane that was, according to witnesses, a commercial airliner. When we arrived at the recruiting headquarters we immediately found a TV and saw the first images of what was happening in New York.

On Saturday I re-lived the next few hours and in hindsight I was struck by just how confused we all seemed to be, especially in the beginning. It was so difficult for us to envision a deliberate attack of this kind that many initial reports were wondering, as I did, what could have caused such a horrible “accident”. As the reality that this was a deliberate attack began to sink in there was still an overwhelming sense of disbelief. The news reporters were trying to stay objective and report what was happening. And there was always the confusion of the initial reports. There was the first report from the Pentagon that a bomb had detonated on the helipad, there was a report that a radical Palestinian group claimed responsibility, there was a report of a bomb going off outside the State Department. I was struck by how the news reports seemed somewhat sterile until just after to

wer 2 collapsed when Matt Lauer pointed out that it was almost certain that rescue operations were still going on in the building when it collapsed and that in a single instant there had been a significant loss of life.

When details of the crash at the Pentagon were reported I started making phone calls. It is a really big building and I only knew a handful of folks who worked there but I wanted to find out if everyone was OK. Of course I didn’t find out much that first day. Late that night I heard from a friend of a friend that Martha was “shook up” but ok. The next days were a blur as we listened to the reports of the death and devastation. By late evening on the 12^th I learned that 4 friends were still not accounted for. Ironically they were all in the same meeting at the time of the attack.

This Saturday I shed tears for them once again.

Lieutenant General Tim Maude was the highest ranking officer killed that day. At the time he was the Deputy Chief of Staff for personnel for the Army. I remember him as bright and cheerful, someone who loved the Army and cared deeply about her soldiers. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/tjmaude.htm

Retired M

aster Sergeant Max Beilke was working on issues affecting retired service members. He was a big friendly guy who always had the time to stop and chat with you for a few minutes. Max was officially the last combat soldier to leave Vietnam. http://www.startribune.com/local/11594516.html

Gary Smith was a retired Lieutenant Colonel. he served as the Chief of retirement services and I remember him as a quiet man who seriously wanted to make a difference. He and max made quit the pair walking the halls of the Pentagon together. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/911victims/gary-f-smith/

Lieutenant Colonel Kip Taylor was the Executive Officer to Lieutenant General Maude. He was quick witted, funny, and loved his family. Although he didn’t take himself too seriously, he was a gifted officer with much still to give to his country. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/911victims/kip-p-taylor/

Religious Freedom

Can you believe how our leaders have politicized what I really thought was a constitutional right. Our history tells us that religious freedom was extremely important to our founding fathers. It was sort of a non-negotiable when the good old US of A was struggling for liberation from those oppressive Brits wasn't it. How times change. Today, the prevailing train of thought seems to be...you are free to practice whatever religion you want as long as my religion is ok with it. The tragedy of September 11 was not an attack on the U.S. by Islam any more than Timothy McVeih's act in Oklahoma was a Christian attack on the U.S. OK I know that many believe that McVeih was a self proclaimed atheist, but he did have ties to a religious doctrine known as the Christian Identity. Some scholars make the point that if McVeih was a Christian he could not have carried out such a horrific act. I would counter that if the 9-11 hijackers had been truly devoted Muslims, they could not have carried out the attacks that they perpetrated. Sorry I guess I am getting a little off track. As Americans we are quick to point to our history of tolerance and freedom and yet we want to make the location of a place of worship into a political issue. Muslims have been worshiping in Manhattan for decades. I should not matter the location of the place of worship. Are we going to restrict Islamic service members from practicing their religion at the Pentagon chapel?

As a final comment I will remind you that in June of 1967, Israel attacked the USS Liberty (nine hours after identifying it as a U.S. Navy vessel) in International waters killing 34 American Sailors. Instead of national outrage the result was national coverup with many documents related to the event still classified. Do we control the location of synagogs near Naval facilities? No we don't.

Insanity Politics

The electorate is fed up with politics as usual. I hear it at least 4 times a week. It seems to be the new battle cry. After all, it's the reason that the Democrats won the White House and control the Congress...right?...or...is it the reason Mr. Brown went to Washington (Sen Scott Brown)?...or it is the reason ...uh...well you get the picture. If you were to stop people on the street anywhere in America and ask them if the political system is broke my guess is a large majority would say yes. If you ask them how to fix it, you will begin to see the problem. Most of those who offered a solution would repeat party sound bites. And that, my friends, is insanity. We've all heard the definition of insanity, it's "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". So how do we change politics enough to stop the insanity? I will admit that I don't have the answer, but I did have a "duh" moment this week, and no I wasn't in a Holiday Inn Express. Here's my question...

...When did the political process begin to revolve more around the party than the person?...

We...the people that is, only think about politics and government before elections, and when "government" does something we don't agree with; like rearrange the school districts, or widen the road in front of our property, or raise taxes, etc. I live in Florida, and the recent theater surrounding Governor Crist's announcement that he would run for Senate as a no party candidate has been eye opening. There was a lot of speculation about how many of his large donors would ask that contributions returned. And most of his campaign staff resigned of course. So that tells me that the donors weren't supporting Mr. Crist because the believed in the man and were confident in his ability to represent Florida in the Senate...no, they were supporting the Republican party. Likewise the campaign leadership. I may be naive but there is something wrong with that in my book. To quote Howard Troxler, an editorial writer for the St. Pete Times, "everybody likes to talk ideology, but what usually decides an election are mechanics, strategy and money." Think about that for a minute. Does that sound like what our founding fathers had in mind when they drafted the Constitution? I for one don't think so.

So how do we stop the insanity? To get any real change we are going to have to find a way to decrease the power and the influence of the party. We, the people, need to listen the political hopefuls and they in turn must listen to the people. No elected official is ever going to make all of the people happy so instead of pretending to be something they are not, to appeal the the largest number of voters, we need politicians with convictions and the moral courage to stick to them. We need politicians who are not professional politicians, but are leaders. We need politicians who are willing to go for the hard right instead of the popular wrong. I could go on but you get the picture? Do I think this is going to happen? No. It might happen occasionally at the local level, and I mean very local. Above the local level, I don't think there is an incentive to change that dramatically. Without the total collapse of the current system where the party and the loyal party minions control money and media we are going to continue the insanity...and while I can't change it, I can at least talk about it and dream...this is America after all.

Over the TOP!!

Senator Jim Bunning is at it again. Using the power of his position for petty self-serving purposes. I am generally a calm person and as a true independent I care about issues and the country more than I care about a political party..I know, call me weird. Anyway, the esteemed Mr. Bunning is holding up Presidential nominations again, not out of character as this seems to be a hobby. I know this is a common way for large egos to express themselves but at what cost? The latest power play by Mr. Bunning is the most outrageous political ploy I think I have ever heard of. SEN Bunning is holding up the the nominations of two officials from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Punke, picked to be U.S. ambassador and permanent representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, and Islam Siddiqui, nominated to be USTR’s chief agricultural negotiator. His reason...the USTR hasn’t done enough to defend Bunning’s home state against a Canadian antismoking law that “unfairly discriminates against Kentucky-grown tobacco.” In other words, he is penalizing the United States because he wants Canada to stop encouraging people not to smoke. I could go on a long time about the philosophical issues with this line of thought but instead I will simply ask the obvious...IS HE INSANE?