Reactions

I think a lot about how we, as people react to things. There are two primary ways that someone can react to a given situation, they can react with reason or they can react with emotion. Quite often these two blend together in an appropriate way. Someone who responds to every situation with reason can be seen as heartless or without empathy, but at least the negative effects of their reaction end there. People who react with pure emotion OFTEN make the wrong decisions, often leading to their own demise.

When the World Trade Center was attacked, everyone had some sort of emotion that rocked them. Some cried for blood and some just cried, but everyone was touched in some way. Unfortunately, we are now here 6 1/2 years later and we have no reconciled the fact that our emotional responses were taken advantage of in the days after September 11th. We were pandered to and manipulated into believing that Iraq was a threat to us in order to fulfill the objective of war with Iraq (which WAS conceived and planned BEFORE 9/11 oddly enough). We have not yet made a reasonable decision with how to move forward on September 12th 2001, so how can we possibly hope to come up with a plan on how to move forward on March 12th 2008?

After Lincoln was assassinated, the union did not say "Our freedom is under attack, and because these are unique times, we must sacrifice some of our freedoms and values to fight this brutal enemy". They did not reinstate slavery, nor did they panic and start patting everyone down before they entered a theatre to make sure they didn't have a gun. They mourned their loss and moved on with life as best they knew how, without mortgaging their values and civil rights.

After King was assassinated, the civil rights movement did not strike back against all white people, massing a propaganda campaign to demonize white people. They kept their goal in mind and mourned their loss, and tried to fulfill the goals that they had set out to accomplish without deterrence.

America's goal is freedom. First and foremost, freedom for the people. Our freedoms are leaving, many have already left. Sure, it may not be a big deal for you to not take a bottle of water on the plane with you. You may be used to having to purchase new razors when you land at your destination. You may be used to planning ahead and making a special trip to the store to get a certain size of shampoo and toothpaste and a certain size of bag to put it in before flying.

You aren't yet used to needing a passport to cross the border into Canada, but you will soon. You aren't yet used to seeing (young) homeless veterans in the streets, the same veterans that the powers that be claim to be "supporting", but you will soon because they are being left with nothing; Well, nothing except a slew of mental illness as a result of their time in Iraq.

If we hope to move past where we are, we only have two options. We must make peace with ourselves for what happened on that day, or we must forget about it. And I don't think many people will be forgetting about it.

Rise up America, it's time to take your country back.