9/11 "Never forget"

Everything is different today than it was on the morning of 9/11.  A lot of us were too young to remember Pearl Harbor and most of us were too naive to think that America could ever be attacked on our own soil.  One thing changed that day.  Our vulnerability as individuals and as a nation had been fully exposed.

I was in the desert that morning, hunting antelope.  I just spent over an hour trying to put a sneak on a real good looking goat, and I got busted.  I stood up and turned around to find out where my friends truck was.  Here he came, barrelling towards me through the sagebrush.  As he pulled up, he was yelling through the open passenger side window, "We've been bombed.  The World Trade Center has been bombed!  Get in."

We were listening to the radio in disbelief, trying to make sense of what was going on.  Then we heard that there was another explosion, then another, then another.  I remember the news broadcaster saying "We are under attack." 

We got back to camp to meet up with the other guys.  As I remember, they were already there with the same blank looks on their faces.  "What happens now?"  "Who is attacking us?"  "What do we do?"  We kept listening to the news and each subsequent update was more horrifying than the previous. 

I ended up with a goat that day, but I can't remember when I got him.  I remember being worried about my family, being worried about my nation.  I remember breaking camp and heading back in to town.  It was clear to me that things were going to be different now....

Through this horrible nightmare, we began to band together as a nation.  Petty differences and all of the chicken shit squabbles that stand between us today were non-existent.  None of that shit mattered!  Ones race, gender, political affiliation or any of the other things that we allow to divide us today simply didn't matter then.

Look at us now...  More divided now than ever and as we usually do, we are looking for someone to blame.  We've got nobody to blame but ourselves.  Collectively, we've allowed ourselves to pick a side.  We're told on a daily basis that anyone across the aisle from you is your enemy.  We are pinning Americans against Americans.  If you were really being honest with yourself, you would notice that we have far more in common with each other than any of the political pundits would allow you to believe.  As long as were involved in a fight, we've got no time or energy to look for solutions.

Nobody I know likes being lied too, and yet we sit and allow ourselves to be lied to every day.  And if those lies are coming from someone in your party, we gladly just accept them.  We're wildly hypocritical.  Right now, some shit is happening politically, that if Obama were still in office, about half of the county would want his head on a stick.  The same can be said of when Obama was in office.  Hardly anyone seems to recognize this and it's fucking maddening!  The people that do recognize this don't belong to a specific political party but are still asked to play the game.  Talk about maddening?

Where do we go from here?  Depending on your news source or who's political bullshit you subscribe to, we're near the end.  I don't buy that shit for a second.  I think my best days as an American lie in front of me.  I know a lot of great people that are caught up in the struggle and I can only hope to open one person's eyes, but I know I can't.  Change comes from within.  If you want better, you act better.  You do better and you encourage others to do the same.

As awful as I felt after learning about 9/11, I kind of want to feel that way again.  It was nice seeing people put all of the bullshit aside, even the professional bullshitters knocked it off for a while.  I'm going to do what I can to be a decent person.  I'm going to do what I can to help others around me.  I give a shit.... do you?