A Day Like Any Other?

     Was 9/11 really that bad? David Bell, a Johns Hopkins History professor has posed the question, and I feel obligated to answer with a resounding yes.
     In the history of America, we have yet to fight a war (and let's not forget that our Muslim enemies have consistently, even prior to 9/11, referred to their efforts against us as World War III) in which the opening salvo claimed so many lives, even military, as 9/11. The Revolutionary War, the French-Indian War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Pesian Gulf War all cost America the lives of her best and brightest. But never, ever, in the history of our country, has an enemy force set foot on our native soil and struck such a blow against our civilian population as on 9/11.
     It was Stalin who said, "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic." In the same vane, I would argue that the death of a soldier is to be expected, the death of a civilian is horrific. I can say this without impugnity, for I have been there. No one can Kerry me, for I have been a boot on the ground, a Jarhead, a Leatherneck, a Devil Dog. I have humped with pack in the depths of a cold, wet night, and carried one in the chamber with an eye on the horizon and an ear out for anything out of the ordinary. To die was a chance we took, and knowingly. To die is a chance those in Iraq yesterday, today, and tomorrow knowingly risk by choice. 9/11 was not such a choice.
     9/11 started off as any other day. Security lines at the airports, congestion on the freeways, cups of coffee and bagels. Mothers and fathers fixed breakfasts and lunches, men and women kissed spouses and loved ones goodbye. It was a day like any other.
     Then a group of monsters murdered almost 3,000 people.
     Was is a day like any other? Was 9/11 really that bad? You decide.
          2,819 people died.
          343 Firefighters and Paramedics died.
          60 Police Officers died.
          1,609 people lost thier spouse or partner.
          3,501 Children lost a parent.
          20% of Americans knew someone that died that day.
          115 Nations are represented in the number that died on 9/11.
     Was 9/11 really that bad? Bell compares it to what Russia experienced in its tumultous history, to military strikes like Hiroshima, to the total dead of wars past. Apples to oranges, I say. I'm not Russian or Japanese, and I'm not nuanced enough to push the emotional attachment I have for my country aside. My nation was attacked. My countrymen died. Perhaps I am not intellectual enough, but to my mind, to even pose such a question is an affront to those who died and those who lived, to the lost and their survivors.
     By my count, David Bell owes a lot of people an apology, more than 5,110.

America the Religious

     There is a fundamental misconception about America, held by both Liberals and Conservatives alike. It is that America was founded as a Christian nation. Many, if not most, Liberals hold this misconception in fear and loathing, and work tirelessly to make sure the culture of our nation never returns to such an unenlightened state. Most, if not all, Conservatives hold this misconception as an anthemic reson d'etre, holding it as the foundation of Conservative Fundamentalism.
     The truth is, America was not founded as a Christian nation, and it was never meant to be one.
     I have come to understand what the founding fathers understood, namely that a Christian nation is by default Totalitarian by nature, albeit beneficent. If our nation had been founded as a Christian nation, one would expect some evidence of preferential treatment for the religion in its founding documents. However, no such preference is shown; indeed, the prohibition against just such a preference is guaranteed in the second amendment.
     America was meant by its founding fathers to be a religious nation, not a Christian nation, for it was intended that all good religions be respected and allowed to be practiced. It makes no difference that most of the founding fathers were themselves Christians, or that they prayed to a Christian God, followed the Protestant belief system, or personally promoted Christianity. What matters to America is that they held it vitally important that religion be respected, protected, and promoted. Good religions promote morality, and morality promotes good government. Such was the stance of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. Indeed, so many of the founding fathers set down their thoughts regarding this, that there can be no debate as to what was intended when they formed the Republic.
     Sadly, it is our own fault that so few understand, on both sides, the truth of a Religious America. Now, religious groups fight alongside atheists to remove any trace of religion from our public culture, not understanding they promote their own demise. The founding fathers knew that, for a nation to remain truly free, able to address evil, and directed by a moral compass, that nation had to be founded upon a respect for religions that promoted just such values. They knew that the involvement of men and women of faith in government was imperative to the integrity of that government. The moral compass provided by a heart-possessed faith, whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Taoist, or other, was and still is the uplifting force that made America great, the lack of which now threatens to make America weak, or destroy it altogether.
     Hence the quandary many Americans find themselves in: whether to support a war against a religious ideology or not. Islam is the religion antithetical to all others. Where Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, or Shintoism teach that all mankind is worthy of respect, whether member or not, Islam teaches that no one is worthy of respect other than Muslims. Where most religions promote peaceful relations with others, Islam commands war. It is the lack of religious involvement, and the increasing prohibition of such, that has created a nation of weak, snivelling, emotional, "I feel your pain" weather vanes. For a nation of religious faithful is a nation able to recognize evil for what it is, and destroy it.
     We were such a nation for quite some time, through the First World War, World War II, even into the Korean War. But no more. Our nation is split, between empathizing liberals and enraged conservatives, between an increasingly socialist elite and an increasingly conservative middle class, between those who see no reason for war at any time and those who see the need to remain ever watchful, ever defensive, and willing to take the offensive if needed.
     We are the sleeping giant still, but the giant is so confused, it may not wake up in time.