The Last Day
September 10th was the last day we didn’t know we were at war.
The last day we were innocent.
The last day to take for granted the privileges and the obligations of American citizenship. The last day to take for granted the depth of the symbolism the United States holds for the rest of the world – whether they hold us up for good or for ill.
The last day to take for granted.
September 10th was the last day we didn’t know we were at war.
The last day we were innocent.
The last day to take for granted the privileges and the obligations of American citizenship. The last day to take for granted the depth of the symbolism the United States holds for the rest of the world – whether they hold us up for good or for ill.
The last day to take for granted.
The last day to pretend the despots of the Arab world were friends and/or allies. The last day of the cozy “oil-for-security-but-don’t-look-inside-our-country” arrangement. The last day the region’s dictators didn’t have to decide whether they were more afraid of their own people or of us. And the last day we didn’t have to care which choice they made.
The last day we could pretend the Arabs did it for Palestine. The last day we didn’t have to understand that Arab devotion to Palestine was a smokescreen for Arab unwillingness to stand with America. And the last day the Palestinians could pretend to be other than what they are.
The last day we could think America’s cultural and historic ties to Europe (Great Britain aside) – and America’s liberation of Europe from its own bestiality twice in this century – might yet overcome Europe’s greed for Middle Eastern money. And the last day it didn’t matter that Europe had learned nothing about the need to confront evil in its earliest incarnation rather than its most capable; not from Hitler, not from Stalin, not from Milosovic.
The last day we didn’t have to wonder whether the Holocaust was the aberration in European history, or whether European pro-Israel and philo-Semitic sentiments since 1945 were the aberration.
The last day of the Cold War; neither the last day of our rivalry with Russia nor the last day of conflict with Russian policy aims, but the last day the Russians were automatically “them.”
The last day Islamic radicals were not “them.” The last day we cared what they thought of us and the freedoms we believe are the common heritage of mankind. The last day we wondered if they might have a point.
For nearly 3,000 Americans, it was the last day.
The next day, they were gone. And we were changed.