Today has been the Fourth of July and Memorial Day wrapped up in one. Of course there are no parades or fireworks, but that wonderful patriotic feeling has been sweeping the nation. But is it more than just a feeling, or is the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 just another patriotic event?
I remember what I was doing on 9/11/01; I was buying a car. I remember dropping my wife off at work and driving around waiting for the particular car salesman to come to work. I stopped to get a cup of coffee; I had about an hour to kill. With my coffee, I turned on the radio to listen to the local talk radio. The reporter was saying there was a report of a plane flying into the World Trade Center. I thought I was listening to a modern day version of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.”
Then the radio reported that a plane had struck the Pentagon. I knew immediately it was Al Qaeda. How did I know? Because three years earlier Osama bin Laden had issued a fatwa against all things American. I remember having to pull guard duty in the military housing areas in Wiesbaden, Germany were my family and me were living. Long before Homeland Security implemented security measures the military had been dealing with it for years.
I remember standing in the car dealership discussing with customers and salespersons the day’s events. One questioned or not this was Armageddon. I assured them it was not. Another person asked how I could be so sure. I told them because I was still here. All of them gave me a puzzled look so I took the opportunity to explain to them the biblical account of the last days. I did ask them had it been the last days, would they be ready to face Jesus?
I remember telling my church that I was afraid that this would be just another patriotic event as was the case with Operation Desert Storm ten years earlier. I was grateful that American flags were flying, church attendance was up, and the military was back in vogue. But how long would that last?
Symbolically it lasted exactly nine months. On June 11, 2002, American Idol began and immediately became the bright shiny thing distracting America. America had overthrown the Taliban in Afghanistan (at least temporarily); Democrats and liberals were acting their regular selves, having shed their nationalistic veneer. The Radical Left began their campaign of no war for oil and “Bush lied, people died.”
Nine months…just enough time to germinate, grow, and generate the undermining of the nation’s vigilance against a people who worship a false religion that is hell-bent on the destruction of anything and everything American. Don’t believe me? Have you ever read Osama bin Laden’s 1998 fatwa? Understand these words:
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God."
That is not from a religion that’s been hijacked; it is from a religion’s holy men and leaders taking their holy book at its word. But almost immediately after 9/11, we were being assured that Islam was a peaceful religion and that Muslims are a peaceful people. The former is an outright lie and the latter is partially true. There are peaceful Muslims but they are apostates to their evil religion. Every mullah will tell you that any Muslim not adhering to a fatwa is in disobedience to Allah. And yet our former and current president, with the aid of those deceived by political correctness, still insists on perpetrating this insidious lie.
Fast forward ten years later to today. Political correctness has so diluted the minds of those leading America that the mayor of the city where an act of war violently awoke his city refused to allow the very heroes of that infamous day to attend the memorial services held at Ground Zero. You would have thought the President of the United States of America would have used his influence upon Mayor Michael Bloomberg to properly honor the brave heroes who survived that hellish day. But this is the same man, Barack Hussein Obama, who has done more to perpetrate the lie of Islam than any world leader in history.
And what of today’s patriotic events? Will it take another nine months before a new bright shiny thing is introduced to distract America's attention? No, it’ll be just 10 days from now, or nine if you begin tomorrow. Ironically, the same man who brought us American Idol nine months after 9/11/01 will in just nine days bring us The X Factor on 9/21/11. Soon, Americans will be talking about Simon Cowell’s latest production and his nastiness towards its contestants and too many Americans will not only forget what happened ten years ago today, but they also will not remember it without an inconvenient reminder.
I have dreaded today. I knew an emotional breakdown was coming soon. It happened at church this morning during a beautiful video tribute to those brave Americans at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and over the skies of Pennsylvania.
You see, six years and eight days after 9/11/01—September 19, 2007—my world came crashing down upon me. My only son, Sergeant Eddie Jeffers, breathed his last breath on an Iraqi desert floor. He’s with Jesus now and I praise God for that.
However, I didn’t need today as a reminder of what happened ten years ago because it was what drove my only son to join the US Army as an infantryman. He told me when I asked why the Infantry, “I want to kill terrorists Dad.” And he did, so much so that he had lost count. And when I asked him if he was sure of what he was doing before he went on his first tour to Iraq, he told me, “Dad, this is my generation’s fight.”
So I too will never forget, but for different reasons for most Americans. And I do not need a reminder; I’m reminded every morning when I attached my Gold Star pin upon my collar.
You see, this is not just another patriotic even for my family and me…
…it is our life.