I know most folks around the country are long past outward observances of the shock and sadness of September 11, 2001. I can't say that I am one of them. Hearing my windows rattle as the Pentagon was hit and watching the second plane hit the World Trade Center live on television are not memories that have faded for me in the slightest.



As a country we've made plenty of mistakes since September 11, 2001 both in dealing with our grief and in trying to ensure our security. We'll pay for those errors in big and small ways for decades to come. A mistake we should not make is to so quickly for get the innocent men and women that died that day or those who perished while trying to save them.

Moreover, we've let September 11th be used as the rallying point for America's domestic and international policy for the last six years. If we fail to observe and remember these events, if they have in only a few short years become so inconsequential to our lives we are failing not just those who died on 9/11.

We are failing our country and ourselves.



-- MDT