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Forty Months,
Two Weeks And Six Days
By Michael A. Minton
Forty months, two weeks and six days--that’s exactly how long it has been since
that dreadful Tuesday morning. The morning when our country was attacked by
cowardly Muslim extremists who attack in stealth and take refuge in caves. And
the morning that solidified this country in a way I had never seen in my (then)
33 years of life.
MORE...
It was certainly a day I will never forget. I was paralyzed in my living room
for two days, glued to the TV screen, watching through tear-filled eyes as
Americans everywhere tried to come to grips with the horrific events which
unfolded that day. Do you remember?
Last night, as I flipped through the various TV stations, I came across the A&E
network, which was showing a new movie called “The Final Hour of Flight 93.” I
watched--for two hours I watched--as the movie portrayed the hour before flight
93 went down in a Pennsylvania field.
They again showed footage of the Twin Towers as they burned and finally
collapsed. They showed footage of the Pentagon after it was attacked. And they
played taped and reenacted telephone conversations between some of the
heroes/victims on flight 93 and their family members. And once again, I was
glued to my television.
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks! What a harsh reminder of the solidarity ALL
Americans pledged after that tragic morning. Things like: “We are no longer
Democrats or Republicans, we are AMERICANS!” Flags started popping up all over
the place. And on Capital Hill there was a feeling that there was NOTHING that
together we could not accomplish. It looked as though the barriers between the
two-party system had finally been breached!
Well, here we are, forty months, 2 weeks and 6 days later, and I believe the
partisanship is now the WORST I have witnessed in my now 37 years of life. What
a shame. We went from the deepest of depths emotionally on the morning of
9/11/01, to the heights of exhilaration at the prospect of a solidified America,
and now back to the depths of despair as we see the true nature of politicians
rearing their ugly heads yet again.
The whole committee meeting on Judge Alito was a joke...just a 4-day
free-for-all during which the Dems on the committee tried every possible way to
besmirch this man’s fine record, not to mention his personal character. Stellar
record, and impeccable character, in fact. Teddy ‘pour me another’ Kennedy went
after Alito’s loose membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton as if it
were the Ku Klux Klan. In reality, Alito has been proven to not hold such
radical views as the liberals would have you think.
And, ironically, it was later learned that Kennedy himself belonged to an alumni
group (The Owl Organization, or something like that) which was actually kicked
off the grounds at Harvard for violating sex discrimination laws. There you go
casting those magic stones again, Senator!
Yes, folks, we are only three years and four months out from the worst attack on
American soil, and we are worse (internally) now than ever. Think about it. I
suggest that we all look at some real-time footage of the Twin Towers strike,
listen to some of the last words on doomed flights, and see if we can POSSIBLY
remember why we are fighting this war. I can personally think of nearly 3,000
reasons without even trying very hard.
The “Question of the Day” on the Fox &Friends show this morning was ‘Who/what do
you think poses the greatest threat to America?’ My reply would have to be The
American People. I hate to say it, but as a nation, we are starting to implode.
And once that happens, our enemies in the world would be more than happy to
employ the old “Divide and Conquer” battle plan which has enjoyed so much
success in the past--AND THEY WILL!
We have got to try and get back on track. No more bitter partisanship in
Congress, no more acting like the ‘culture of corruption’ belongs strictly to
the Republican party. Just be honest, and do your job, damn it---REPRESENT THE
PEOPLE! That is ALL we ask of you...simply represent us. I hope we can
accomplish this before the land I cherish so dearly becomes another on one of
those ‘ash heaps of history’ we so often hear about.
The Great Experiment can work, but only if it is prosecuted the way it was
designed to over 200 years ago. It worked that long, you know? If it ain’t
broke.…
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