| Sept.
11 One Year Later |
| There are fewer flags waving from homes, fewer flags Scotch-taped
to the windows of cars and front doors of homes, and fewer
flag pins worn on coats and dresses than there were a year
ago. |
| Is it that easy to forget? Is it that easy to erase from
our minds, our souls, the terror of Sept. 11, 2001? Have we
internalized our feelings so much that we've rolled up our
flags instead of rolling up our sleeves to fight our fears
and fight for our freedoms? |
| We'll each remember the first anniversary of Sept. 11 in
our own way next month. No matter how much the importance
of that date has waned over the past year, it is important
for all us to keep that date forever in our minds. |
| There are thousands of programs planned to remember Sept.
11, 2001. Houses of worship, governments, and groups of all
kinds will hold services to honor those who died, to honor
all of us, and to revitalize the patriotism so many Americans
felt a year ago. |
| Television will be filled with the recounting and remembering,
newspaper front pages will report on all the memorials, and
flags will fly again. There will be moments of silence, moments
of bells, moments of prayer, and moments of tears. It must
be that way because we cannot afford to forget. |
| There will also be unsavory moments. |
| This past weekend, driving on the rough and tumble Pennsylvania
Turnpike from Indiana to Virginia, my wife Betsy and I passed
a sign mounted on a high pole along the highway. It was in
Somerset County where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into
the Pennsylvania countryside on Sept. 11, killing all people
aboard, including the terrorists who had taken over the aircraft. |
| If it hadn't been for several passengers on board who were
determined to stop the hijacked airplane from heading back
to Washington, D.C., to hit an unknown target, many more people
might have died. It's the flight on which the term "Let's
Roll" took on a new meaning. |
| It was passenger Todd Beamer who was heard saying "Let's
Roll" over a cell phone as several people stormed the cockpit
to take control. Beamer's wife, Lisa, has written a book titled
"Let's Roll," detailing and memorializing her husband's life.
You can find out more about the passengers on Flight 93 at
http://www.hazlitt.org/united/whotheywere.html#ToddBeamer. |
| But back to that sign on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. |
| The sign on that pole at first seemed to me to make a mockery
of all of that. The sign read: "Flight 93 tours. Call toll
free." The number passed so quickly that neither of us could
read it. I wish I had that number because I am really curious
as to what in the world a Flight 93 tour would entail. Is
there that much to see? |
| But the sign said so much. It said so much of America. It
said so much of what we are. It said so much about how Sept.
11 encompassed so much of everything American, including capitalism,
which apparently is alive and well and thriving in Somerset
County, Pennsylvania. |
| |
| Olympic
Madness |
| Just
a Memory |
| This week the U.S. Olympic Committee's board of directors
selected New York and San Francisco as the two U.S. finalists
for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Voted out of the running were
Houston, Texas, and Washington, D.C. |
| Thank goodness. |
| The prospect of the Washington area hosting an Olympic event
in 10 years was a really scary proposition. We can't get traffic
moving around here now. Just think of the headaches the Olympics
would have brought. |
| The thought of Washington, D.C. being able to host the Olympics
is almost laughable. We are all better concentrating on things
that will bring more sanity to this region, like better roads,
buses and rail. |
| Maybe we should start thinking hosting an event on a smaller
scale: Say something like a national yo-yo competition. |
| And that's Our Town this week. |
