Remembering September 11, 2001

By William L. Garvin

On September 5, 2001, my daughter gave birth to my first grandchild. There had been some concerns about his health during my daughter’s pregnancy so we were all greatly relieved to find those fears were unfounded. Jarod is now a healthy, active young boy who just turned nine years old.

That was one of the happiest days of my life. It’s hard to imagine that in less than a week, I would be at the other end of the emotional spectrum. I think it’s important to remember that in spite of repeated attacks against Americans, on September 10th, 2001, there was no obscure preacher threatening to burn the Koran. There was no protest against Islam or the building of a mosque anywhere in America. However, the United States of America did exist and that was provocation enough for radical Muslim terrorists to hijack four American airplanes and use them to murder thousands of our innocent citizens.

Nine years later, some of the situations and the facts have changed, but the threats of violence remain the same. Today we are even told that if we don’t build, the Ground Zero Mosque, the Arab world will explode in anger. Others profess that it will be the ultimate recruitment tool for Al Qaeda. A radical jihadist website promised to kill ten Americans for every letter in the Koran that is burned. Somewhere there is a tremendous market for anger management classes.

It appears as if there are certain elements of the international society, our global world, that are looking for an opportunity to be offended. There are certain other elements that don’t even need a reason, they just want to destroy. Then there are those who are so afraid of offending someone that they will tolerate most anything. “If you don’t stand for something, then you will probably stand for anything.” In a contemporary world, apparently the only thing that will not be tolerated is intolerance…sort of.

It was also somewhat difficult to discern what the presidential standard is for deciding to comment on wisdom when it comes to complex issues. In the Ground Zero Mosque controversy, President Obama was quick to state the obvious, that the Imam and his property developers had a constitutional right to build the mosque. However, he said he would not comment on the wisdom of building it. When he came to the preacher’s actions, he did not comment on the constitutional right to burn the Koran but instead chose to comment on the wisdom of doing so.

Make no mistake about it, burning the Koran is a stupid thing for any American to do. Burning the American flag is also a stupid thing to do. Nonetheless, the courts have declared the latter to be within the purview of freedom of speech and would undoubtedly declare the former to be the same. The proposed burning of the Koran was appropriately and nearly universally condemned by all religious and political leaders. Was that enough to appease the enemies of the “Great Satin”? Of course not. They have a political need to focus on a single individual and trumpet the conviction of the masses for “Islamaphobia.” It boggles my mind to see how an unknown individual can instantaneously gain presidential commentary, Secretary of Defense phone calls, incessant television coverage and front page news. I’m not exactly sure why he made national and international news. I guess that’s what happens when Lindsey Lohan actually manages to keep a low profile for a week.

In some ways, things have gotten much worse since 9/11/2001. Back then, for a brief period of time, leaders of America forgot their political parties. Everyone joined hands on the Capitol steps to pray and sing “God Bless America.” For a brief period of time, America was united. Everyone knew that this exceptional country would rise above the smoke, death, and disaster. For a moment, we looked for and saw the good in one another. Now we don’t. Worse yet, many don’t even remember when America stood tall, proud, and defiant in the face of tragedy. Worse yet, some seem to like it that way.