Do Not Be Silent

The five year anniversary of September 11th is close at hand, a mere six days away. During this time, pundits everywhere are talking about bringing the nation together as one, putting away 'petty' political differences. In one sense, they are correct. As a nation, we should be united by the bonds of such incomprehensible tragedy, never to be torn apart again, as some would say, be united, not a divided.

It is, however, the other sense which these people have implied it. They would like us to be silent about our outrage in the way the ensuing five years has been handled and perverted into a political whipping boy for the Republican Party. That's just what it's been for the last 12 years, too; a party for the Republicans. Their first whipping boy was Clinton, arguably our greatest president in 50 years. Since 2001, it's been the attacks of September 11th.

The economy, the war, the division of this great nation, all the fault of September 11th, which was the fault of the cowardice of the Democratic Party. Of course, if we look back in history, we would note that international terrorism has been on the rise for the last 30 years, and the Republicans have been president to the great majority of those years, and largely responsible for the security failures we are witnessing today, culminating with America as the target in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Alas, Clinton was our president during that time, so we must admit that he was completely at fault for that failure in security, except that he was only in office for two months at the time. That puts a few dents in that argument. What about the Cole? The issue with the Cole is that you can't always catch small operations. Even if you could, military rules of engagement are very specific: Do not fire unless fired upon, except with direct prior approval from an officer aboard the ship.

My point is that the Republicans will not be silent as they pay lip service to the horrors of September 11th and neither should we as we try to preserve the memory of the lost.

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light."