Tozerboy

I thought about posting what I was thinking on and about 9/11 Monday, but I just figured enough was being said, maybe too much. Anyone that was alive and cognizant on that date has some pretty strong feelings about it and what has happened since.

Throughout the day, I kept thinking of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the two greatest leaders this country has ever had, in my opinion anyway. I thought about FDR because he knew how to lead without using fear (read terror). I thought about Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address too, as I tried to imagine an appropriate memorial to the 9/11 victims.

Most of us know the speech. We’ve heard it a thousand times, probably from our own mouths as we attempted to memorize it for school. Back then it drove me crazy, it was just another chore, a requirement to pass the class, but now I feel differently. Maybe it’s age or maturity that gives me a different perspective on the speech. I really think it’s because, by now in my life, I understand loss. So throughout the day I kept thinking of two sentences from the speech, “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

I wondered all day long, what we or our leaders had done, to really give a fitting memorial to the lost souls of 9/11? Of course Lincoln was right, no matter what we do, we can not compensate for the loss. So as the day went along I decided it was just too big for us to understand, and I could not blame a Democrat or a Replubican for this. But then President Bush gave his memorial speech. What a misuse of a great opportunity. What an insult to us as Americans.

What can I say about a man that abuses a solemn day for his own political gain? What can I say about a leader that implies that dissenters, people with reasonable differences of opinion, of basically being traitors? What can you say about the coincidence of his speech being scheduled at 9 PM so that it interrupted ABC’s rant against the Clinton administration’s pre 9/11 policies?

I am disappointed, saddened and very angry. George W. Bush is a little man, unworthy to carry on the traditions of this nation. He is a man of small stature in a position, and in a time, that requires something bigger. His 9/11/06 speech made him seem even smaller to me. I did not think that was possible. In my opinion the War on Terror (read fear) is being lost, because I am more afraid today than I was yesterday. I am afraid not of Al-Qaeda, or Bin Laden and their ilk, but I am afraid of our leaders. The men leading us now are not capable of true leadership. I am afraid of where they are taking us. I am also afraid of our ability to find the right men and women to lead and protect us in the future. Maybe that is what I fear most.

At 8:46 AM, when a man on the radio reminded me of what happened exactly at that moment on 9/11/01, I was standing in line at a Dunkin Donuts. Just as I started to reflect, the woman working behind the counter yelled, “Next,” and the world moved on. I remember exactly where I was at 8:46 AM, 9/11/01. I remember exactly where I was on 11/23/63 when I heard JFK was shot. I can’t remember where I was last year on either of those dates. I won’t forget where I was at 8:46 AM or at 9 PM this year though.