September 11th, Postscript 

A decade later American values still matter 

The somber ceremonies in remembrance of the victims and heroes of 911 have ended. Time always softens the pain and lightens the scars but never erases the memories. With more then a decade to reflect on the events of that early Tuesday morning, it's important to remember that freedom is ephemeral as it can only be sustained by the sacrifice of patriots. America has given it's precious sons and daughters for the cause of liberty. They in turn have given life, limb and blood for our Republic. We owe them more then words, we need to remember the values of the founding and the one that gives each American their inherent natural rights, our Creator.   

When the planes struck the World Trade Center, the people inside those building believed that they would be able to get out or be rescued. As the burning jet fuel reached temperatures of two thousand degrees Fahrenheit and with their route of escape cut off, many had to choose between being burned alive or jumping to their death. To actually see a man and women holding hands as they jumped from the top floors with the flames and smoke licking at their backs was heart wrenching. Firefighters and Police officers rushing in then disappearing in a pile of ruble and smoking debris. These images drove home the brutality of the attack and our belief in God as we prayed for one another.

For the months that followed, Americans stood together and became as one; E Pluribus Unum. We put our trust in God and lived our lives knowing that America would prevail. The war on terror has been long but the countless battles from Afghanistan, Iraq and the death of Osama Bin Laden are only milestones in our struggle against Islamic fascism. The gathering threat can appear anywhere in the world where evil is allowed to operate unchecked. Iran, Yemen and Syria are future hotspots. It is a fight we never sought but it is a fight we must win. Its that simple. We live and those who want to kill and maim need to die. It will only end when we triumph against an evil ideology.

In order to prevail, our Republic needs to live by our founding principles. After all, the greatness of this country is based on the greatest man made document of all time, the American Constitution. Just ask the citizens of the world who seek to come here. Yet in Washington, it seems that some of our leaders have forgotten our history. While we would like to give the benefit of the doubt to those who lead us, the reality is clear, their view of liberty is an alternate view, one which embraces the values of the world and not the values of what makes this country the greatest in the world. Even after September 11th, they have chosen to ignore the lessons of history. 

When our government seeks to provide unlawful enemy combatants captured on the battle field with constitutional protections and a civilian trial, it represents a repudiation of the constitution which does not provide protections to terrorists on a foreign battlefield. When America's Commander in Chief apologizes to the world on behalf of America, it weakens our moral authority to speak on behalf of those oppressed around the world by rogue governments. When the President refuses to acknowledge that America is engaged in a war on terror, he is rejected the number one reason that the government on the federal level was formed, to protect American citizens. 

When President Obama claimed that "America is no longer a Christian nation" and extolled the virtues of Islam, he made it clear that he holds a hostile view of our Judeo-Christian heritage. How can he forget our history of prayer to the God of Jacob who has preserved our union?

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union."

President Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation of Thanksgiving, October 3, 1863.

There is hope. When the mayor of the City of New York Michael Bloomberg tried to exclude God from the ceremonies of the tenth anniversary of September 11th, President Obama read the 46th Psalm. Former President Bush read Abraham Lincoln's 1864 letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby on the death of her five sons who died in battle for the Union. "I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom." Finally, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani read from the book to Ecclesiastes.

America's greatness can only be sustained if we remember the basis for our greatness, our Creator. He has bestowed the inalienable right of liberty to his creation and has guided America from the founding. He will continue to do so if we continue to reflect His values. For the last ten years, many have exemplified these values. For that we give thanks! God Bless America!

Previous Opinion and Editorials