4758 9/11

 Everyone wants a piece of 9/11.  If you weren’t there, you don’t get it.  If you were, you already have it and don’t need anyone else’s.

 

The closer you were to the Trade Center or the Pentagon or that farm field in Pennsylvania, the better you understand.  And the farther from it you were, the less likely are to assign it real meaning, the kind that claws your heart and knots your stomach and turns on your autopilot long enough to get through the day or the year.

 

If you were there, you have PTSD even if you don’t know it or don’t think so, or deny it, or say you’ve recovered from it.  You haven’t and you can’t.  

 

Now, it’s 20 years in the past and also it was yesterday.  And we’re past the war in Afghanistan a mentally and morally defective president started in a feeble way to prevent a repeat… a second 9/11 and who was followed by two presidents one who saw it as a class project and one who announced its end and then did all he could to make sure the current president would take the blame.

 

Need we still fear Al Qaida, the Islamic State, and all the puny bombers and machete wielders of the Middle East?

 

Well, yes. They aren't gone, they aren't stupid. They're just hiding in the dunes awaiting darkness and a clouded-over moon. But there are worse in plain sight. 

 

Domestic terrorists. 

 

They're plotting to take over the country. And they make no bones about it.

 

They are not mad geniuses like the Unabomber Kaczynski or mad media cuckoos like Roger Ailes or Rush Limbaugh. They're not even the meth and moonshine sodden farm boys like Timothy "Deliverance" McVey with truckloads of flammable fertilizer. 

No. They are men and women in business attire with titles before their names like "Senator" or "Governor" or "The Honorable."  "Reverend."

 

They talk in bumper stickers. They scare the rationality out of you. They cause forest fires of fear in your hearts and burgle your ability to think without leaving evidence of forced entry or blunt force trauma.

 

They focus you on trivia. Movie stars, computer games and video streaming, and ball games and freedom to infect and be infected while their tailors and dressmaker sew straitjackets.

 

Sure, we have that in your size. Anything from petite xx small to 6XL. You want a red one, or blue?

 

So… now we remember the good old days when our enemies didn’t look like us… or act as we did then. 

 

You want a piece of 9/11? Help yourself. There’s plenty to go around.  But remember, there’s a new front, and you’re in the front lines. Don’t screw up.

 

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2021