PAGE 18: UNDER ATTACK...HOW COULD WE FORGET?

Joey and I were married in the huge cathedral in Grand Rapids by our pastor, Dr. Fred Woodin (4 doctorates mind you and an incredible pastor).

I was wandering through the church website a while back and ran across a video Dr. Woodin had done. The subject?

What it was like for him to stand in his then church office in Brooklyn New York looking out the window across to Lower Manhattan, and as he watched? The two planes hit the twin towers on 9/11. That hour long sermon moved me to tears, as it should any living breathing American. His ability to convey his own heart as well as the heart and soul of all Americans as we watched, absorbed, and stood together in unison in the wake of a catastrophic attack on our homeland was astounding, and unforgettable. Moving beyond my words to describe it.

Now? I am reminded that 9/11 was not the first time we have been attacked as a nation. The first? The first is what is known as the American Revolutionary War. My ancestor Brigadier General John Stark led the forces into the final battle of that war effectively ending it. The second was of course Pearl Harbor and World War II. The third? The Blind Sheik and the attempted bombing of the World Trade Center ten years before 9/11...and the fourth? 

9/11 itself. The day our innocence as a country toward war on our shores died. Our attitudes toward our own invulnerability evaporated and amidst the ash of the crumbling twin towers we suddenly became something other than what and who we had been up to that moment. It was bone-chilling and mind-searing...and it should have been burned into the souls of EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN, and passed on to their children and beyond so that we might NEVER FORGET what that day meant and will ALWAYS MEAN to America and every single American present and future. I remember standing (and then abruptly sitting) as the impact of what I was watching began to sink in. I walked into a room where my mother was watching CNN as the devastation began to unfold and at first I thought it was just a drama on TV and then realized it was not. It was real life and I sat and watched intensly 24/7 for three days...riveted by the events of 9/11 and even then getting a sense of how not only our history but our future had been dramatically changed forever.

But how can we forget something so profoundly devastating? It should have and for many initially at least did sear our souls and brought a sense of vulnerability to danger from foreign adversaries heretofore unknown to Americans in this era to the forefront of our collective thinking. 

HOW CAN WE FORGET?
But forget we have. 

How can I say that?
I can say that because we were ONCE AGAIN attacked in 2016, by Russia and we CONTINUE to be attacked by Russia, while about 35% of the country sits and watches and seems oblivious to the peril we faced then and are continuing to face. The fundamental attack on our democracy and our free and fair election process was and is being undermined as we sit and do nothing...aided and abetted by Donald Trump AND Mitch Mc Connell. They and their Republican congressional co-horts are systematically dismantling our government and giving the rest of us the middle finger while WE THE PEOPLE sit on our dead asses and do little to nothing to stop any of it as if there is nothing wrong with what is being done to us and this country.

HOW CAN WE FORGET?

If we don't move to protect ourselves and our way of life, we risk losing it partially or completely and we will have only ourselves to blame. WE SHOULD BE STANDING UP to such aggression not only from Russia but from the Republicans who are so weak-kneed and lily-livered that they would rather watch this country slashed and burned than lift a finger to stop the attacks. They want to protect their own flanks (and congressional seats/asses) at the risk of the total collapse of America. They are TRAITORS to this country and need to be called out on it. TRUMP AND MC CONNELL NEED TO BE AND DESERVE TO BE IN PRISON for what they are doing and have done already.

But what about the voters who concur with these betrayers of the Public Trust? Perhaps it is THEY who are most at fault and perhaps it is THEY who need to be deported, not the asylum seekers at our Southern border. Perhaps it is THEY who have forgotten ALREADY? 

9/11, and Pearl Harbor and the ARW...
and HOW CAN THEY?

Evidently pretty easily. As quickly as the Evangelicals and the rest decided to turn a blind eye to the history and character of Trump for their greed to get for themselves what they want (but at what cost) they decisively nodded assent to what has ensued since. They have no problem with his grabbing women by the genitals, or his cozying up to dictators all over the world, or heavily damaging our State Department or the Department of Education or NOAA or the EPA or...and the rest of this rocky horror show.

Nope, they appear to be in HOT PURSUIT of Trump doing what he is doing, flaunting justice and the Rule of Law as fast as he can, thumbing his nose at the constitutional prohibition against Presidents enriching themselves at the expense of the citizenry. Making a mockery of American democracy in general, and doing it all BLATANTLY AND OPENLY, evidently and stated that he can and will without fear of reprisals.

THEY OF THE TRAITOR CLASS OUT HERE HAVE FORGOTTEN, and obviously have NO regard for the sanctity of America, our way of life, our system of justice, our fore-father given principles and values and our hard-fought for and dearly-price-paid-for FREEDOMS, unique in the world and in history.

WE HAVE FORGOTTEN, and may it not come to pass that in doing so we hasten our own demise at the hands of Russia, the Chinese, Kim Jong Un, and TRUMP AND MOSCOW MITCH, who are profiteering for their own greed upon the backs of even those who have voted for these traitorous heartless and totally greedy bastards.

EVERY TIME YOU VOTE REPUBLICAN THESE DAYS YOU ARE CASTING A VOTE FOR THE DEATH OF YOUR OWN COUNTRY AND YOUR OWN WAY OF LIFE.

GUESS YOU FORGOT 9/11, and all that came before. The millions who have died fighting for what you now so freely and willingly stand to sacrifice for no real good reason. GUESS YOU FORGOT Pearl Harbor and the losses gained by the hostile actions of the Japanese or AWR and the British,

YES ONE VOTE MATTERS, as it did not take all that many in hindsight to elect Trump and look what those votes have done.

I cry again for what we are risking by turning away from the havoc Trump is wreaking and it feels like watching that morning in September of 2001 as a part of our infrastructure was destroyed along with our sense of invulnerability and our peace and our values. It was not just the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and that field in Schenksville Pennsylvania and almost the White House that stood to fall in ruins at the hands of Saudi terrorists. It was the SOUL OF AMERICA that was brutally attacked that morning almost 20 years ago, but are we going to sit back and let it be destroyed even further now? No buildings are falling, but are WE?

HOW COULD WE FORGET, HOW CAN WE?

Boggles the mind.
Hurts the soul.
Harms the spirit.

UNDER ATTACK...HOW COULD WE FORGET?
COPYRIGHT © 2019 by DYLAN S LE MAIRE for
LE MAIRE NEWS SYNDICATE
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