2002-09-11 - 9:11 a.m.

OKay...maybe it's just because I'm a contrarian...but I'm doing my very best *not* to think about 9/11/2001 today.

Not because I don't think the families of the 3000 folks who lost their lives don't deserve our sorrow and assistance in coping with that senseless tradgedy.

Not because I don't support the valiant efforts of the firefighters and policemen and other personnel who ran to fight the fires, without consideration for themselves.

Not because I am ashamed to be an American, or because I agree with the tenets of Radical Islam (as differed from the Islam that I suspect Mohammad truly preached)

Not for any of those reasons.

I am not thinking about it because that is how we win.

The secret to winning over terrorism is shown right in the name itself..."terror". If they can't make us change, then they accomplish nothing, and eventually even the most diehard and asinine idiot will stop doing that which doesn't work.

Yes, it is a deeply troubling event when an act of terror strikes. The families, businesses, and communities directly hit suffer wounds that are deep and destructive.

But, truly, were you directly impacted by 9/11/2001? Probably not.

If you did have a friend or family member who perished, then you have my extremest sympathy and support. If I can help you in any way, all you need to do is ask.

But the universe of those people isn't really all that large.

Something like 2950 people died in the incidents on that day(I don't have an exact number...no one does...even the folks who had the official number had to change it recently).

Something north of 20,000 people die every day in this country.

A large chunk of commercial space in downtown New York was destroyed. But space can be rebuilt, either on that site or somewhere else.

If we spent the amount of money that the Government is spending to try and make the country "secure" (A hopeless task in anything short of the 1984 state) on chasing disease and poverty, we could make life good enough for everyone that noone would be willing to throw their life away in such a senseless manner.

Now, I am not completely saying "Go away, you bother me" here. I do think that the Government should find the person or persons responsible, and destroy them. Personally, I think a televised execution consisting of his entrails being pulled out and burned would be a good start.

I also think those people who are actually directly affected should receive just and significant compensation, be it through Insurance, a Government grant, or whatever.

What I don't think should happen is that we should not live in fear.

We shouldn't require people to be frisked when getting on an airplane. *Especially* not when the choices of whom to frisk are essentially random.

We shouldn't require people to be frisked to go to a baseball game.

We shouldn't have secret military tribunals which can imprison people without allowing them the Constitutional Rights of access to lawyers (of their own choosing), the right to confront their accusers and challenge the evidence against them.

We shouldn't be hanging American Flags in 27,000,000 places where they aren't usually, just as a "See...I'm a Patriotic American...see how good I am?"

We shouldn't be subjected to 48 hours of continuous and public mourning and martyrization just because today happens to be the anniversary of a hijacking.

Our legislators shouldn't be spending more time wrapping themselves in the Flag than they spend protecting the Constitution that gives that Flag a meaning.

Our Vice President shouldn't be going to a "Secure and Undisclosed location" every time someone on the FBI watch list sneezes.

We shouldn't be turning the National Mall, which used to be the world's greatest open space, into a patrolled military playground.

We shouldn't be changing our lives to try and avoid that which has already happened. Terrorists don't do what they already did...it isn't effective. They come up with the *next* thing.

And you know what...I shoudn't be spending all this time thinking about it, rather than doing the productive work that helps make America move forward (well...at least to the extent that what I do helps...it probably doesn't, but that's an issue with my job, not with the crapola of 9/11).

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