Times have changed since that day

BY JOE B. COATES
Publisher

Twelve years have passed since our country was attacked by Muslim terrorists.  On September 11, 2001, a horde of these extreme radicals took control of four aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers and crew members and successfully crashed three into intended targets in New York City and Washington, D. C.  The fourth flight, United flight 93, was ended when passengers fought back and the cowardly terrorists in control of it crashed the aircraft into a field in rural southwest Pennsylvania just minutes before they were going to use it to hit another target in our nation’s capitol.

The nation, and the world, were stunned.  We were visibly shaken here in Copiah County.  I recall in the days that followed that the country not only came ‘together’ as patriots, but folks around Copiah County seemed a bit nicer.  People spoke to each other in public and opened doors for each other.  Drivers managed roadways more carefully and more caringly.  We all had concern for each other and for our country.  We were united.

Much of that has changed in twelve years.  I hear some of the survivors of the World Trade Center Towers, for example, say on the many documentary films that have been produced that they just want to go back to what life was like on September 10, 2001. They say that America was innocent and a more free and the cloud of the threat of another attack wasn’t there.  Life was ‘normal.’

I would rather see the nation and our peoples go back to how we were in the days following the attacks, when patriotism and respect for each other seemed to be at record levels.   Certainly I don’t wish that a terrorist  attack was the catalyst for the uniting of our nation.  But, in these days where everyone is sharply divided with someone over politics, religion, cultural differences, beliefs and much more, we as a country should be electing leaders that work to bring us together, much like those immediately following 9/11.  Instead, we’ve elected those that wish to divide us in many, many ways.

I heard someone say the other day that parties vying for power are no longer Republican or Democrat.  The battle is between libertarians and, now sadly, socialists.  Both ‘official’ parties have the some of each.  And, unfortunately the socialists–those that want government to be in control of nearly every facet of your life, my life and the lives our children and grandchildren, currently have the upper hand.

We can all remember how we felt that day–with anger, with hatred, with compassion for the fallen and, perhaps, with fear.  Nonetheless, remember.