I was out of the country when Al Qaeda hit New York, DC, and rural Pennsylvania. My wife and I were on vacation in London, and had just come up out of the Tube having spent the day at the London Museum. We saw crowds of people rushing to the newsstands grabbing the evening papers. It was obvious to us that something was going on; yet when I got a copy of the paper in my hands and saw the front cover with the image of an airliner smashing through the North Tower, I was speechless. We stood there and read for a few minutes and then ran to our hotel and promptly turned on the TV. There we watched the images over and over again. We wept and stared in disbelief. 

At the time all I, knew was that the planes that hit the Twin Towers had taken off from Boston. I assumed that they were the US Airways Shuttles from Boston to New York and Washington that both had been hijacked and had been flown into the towers.   The news channels did not have all the information and were only able to report what they could, and there were lots of unanswered questions about the attacks, and lots of missing information to put the whole thing together. 

As we watched the coverage from our London hotel room we also tried frantically to call home to our families in Dallas and Boston, which took hours to get through. Still thinking it was the Shuttles that had taken down the towers, I reflected and mourned for those crews and those passengers. I mourned for those families whose loved ones would never be coming home again. And, I thought about how easily it could have been me on one of those planes. 

You see, at the time I was an airline pilot living in Boston, based out of New York LaGuardia, and I commuted to LGA several times each week via the Shuttle. I knew the crews. I knew the passengers. I thought, like everyone else, “How could this have happened?” And in the wake of the sham that was the 9-11 Commission, half of whom were complicit in enabling the atmosphere that allowed the attacks to be executed, I still wonder. Today I watched, and wondered and reflected. And I grew angry and was moved beyond words. I don’t quite know how to describe the experience. 

My little girl was running and playing and laughing around the family room, blissfully unaware of what I was watching and what it meant for her future. I think it was precisely that which weighed so heavily on my heart this morning. I looked at her precious face and held her and hugged her, and I promised her that I would always be there to protect her. I thought about what kind of monsters would wantonly kill masses of people in the name of their religion, who would deprive children like my precious daughter of their parents – and parents of their children. I thought about our troops overseas and their families praying for their safe return. I thought about what the future holds. Never again – this can never happen again.

As an Army veteran, a former cop and airline pilot, security is something that is always on my mind. I have lived my life in code yellow since I was 18 years old, and will until the day I die. If necessary I will run to my country’s defense. And, when necessary I will disagree vehemently with my government and protest loudly when they screw things up. They screwed up royally before 9/11 with their heads buried in the sand and passing up opportunity after opportunity to get Osama Bin Laden when they knew he was a threat. Of course, not too many could have predicted something on the scale of 9/11, but that’s the point – that is what we are up against. Now is not the time for complacency. Not now, not ever. 

Perhaps that is what bothered me the most on this seventh anniversary of the attack of September 11, 2001: the fact that so many Americans have once again become complacent in the face of the threats of terrorism, while so many others have willingly surrender so much to arbitrary government authority for the promise of protection from terrorists. There is a delicate balance that must be maintained, and a certain amount of trust that we have to place in our government officials to keep our nation safe from those who would harm us. But that trust has to go both ways: government must respect our Liberty, and we must never relinquish any of our rights, any of our Liberty for the promise of security or prosperity. Not now, not ever; because history has shown time and again that once Liberty is relinquished to government, it is seldom, if ever given back to the people.

Complacency in the face of danger is fatal – always. This November we will elect our President, Senators and Representatives in Congress who will be the ones who will address these serious issues and will be charged with the heavy burden of responsibility of protecting our national interests and security. 

As you tuck your precious children into bed tonight and look at their innocent little faces, ask yourself what kind of world you want them to inherit. Ask yourself whether you want a President who will not back down from their threats and will pursue them to the ends of the earth, or one who will seek understand them so that he can better empathize with their grievances against us. Ask yourself if you want a President who has been to war and knows its horror all too well, or one who views men and women in uniform as bloodthirsty fascist thugs. Ask yourself if you want a President who has personally suffered at the hands of evildoers of the same ilk as Bin Laden, or one who thinks he can charm them into abandoning their Jihad? Look at your children and think about these things. 

One choice will cost us in the short term and will enable us to preserve our Liberty and way of life and to pass it on to our children. The other choice could cost us everything. It’s not just about where you were on September 11, 2001; it’s about whether or not enough of us remember and make the choice to make sure such atrocities never, ever, happen again.

http://www.dfwtex.com/html/never_forget.html

I remember, and I will never forget.