On this day, 9/11. America - Sick and Dying

America – Sick and Dying

I have pondered this topic for so many years, not unlike most Americans. We go about our day, coming and going, with constant reminders…hints, vignettes…symptoms really, that speak of this country’s worsening condition. And the solutions to “the problem” are as varied as “the problem” itself.

But today, September 11, 2009, eight years after the attacks upon NYC, the Pentagon and the very spirit of a nation, I could not choose a more fitting day to write about it.

I will never forget the day that I exited my rented home, strolled across the carport to my car and heard an under-breath, but loud enough, tone of disgust “degenerate”. I was stopped in my tracks to whirl about in a 100-120 degree angle and find the source of this disdain – my neighbor “Bob”, who was staring with great contempt, right at me. We had been neighbors for about ten or eleven months and I could only assume that my party, the night before, was the catalyst for his disgust.

Being more surprised than angry over the moment, I then approached him, an elderly, proud man, standing statuesque near the invisible property line that separated our homes. All of those anecdotes he had shared with me about the neighborhood – suddenly found their original intent. I realized, at that moment, that I was standing in the presence of a man who built his home in a “new area” with great hopes of all it would become – yet it had not. Suddenly, as never before, in an instant, fighting through the logic in my rapid-fire brain – without any justifiable reason…I felt shame; and I did not know why.

So I asked this man “Bob, what have I done to you? Why am I now a ‘degenerate’? Why would you call me that?” A second or two passed before he replied, “Do you even know what it means?” I had to think about that. Yes I knew, but what did he mean by it? As I stood there - speechless, he took the opportunity to address me further. Since that happened about thirty years ago, I do not recall “verbatim” what he went on to say. But I know what I walked away from him feeling – I had failed him. I had failed our community. There was something very lacking in my moral fiber…and I needed to know what that was.

I still have that feeling. Not so much as an individual anymore, but as an “American”. Today, especially today, I look upon the collective of this nation and I ask, on our behalf as a whole, “What have we done to deserve so harsh a reply? What blood do we have on our hands, so to speak, that would justify so great an atrocity as the attack on us, eight years ago?”

Again, I am not the first, and certainly not the only one asking this exact same question. And the answers are many – though I’m not sure I agree with any one of them. But I do applaud the courage it takes to pose one – even one answer, that could possibly justify “that day”. National pride, foolish arrogance or whatever the source, has shown little patience or understanding towards those that would dare speak of America in any less tone than “A Great Nation”. America IS a “great nation” by most any standard. I sometimes weep with gratitude when I see the ghastly fate and life of others born in far lesser places. But know this - every great nation has failed; every great nation has made significantly large mistakes; every great nation has the potential to become even greater.

A fitting quote regarding America was made about her years ago:
“America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” - Alexis de Tocqueville

Are we “there” yet? Have we ceased to be good?

As a nation, I do not believe that for one minute. I deeply believe in my heart of hearts that this nation, like NO OTHER nation on Earth, is filled with good and honest, hard-working people who will not think a moment about helping someone in need. I challenge anyone to name a more charitable country than America.

But, what about America as a “World Super-Power Government”? What is the nature of the “collective” that form America’s Federal Government? Never mind the fact that the ratio of US Representation spelled out in the US Constitution was abandoned long, long ago. I am not writing about America’s Constitutional breaches – that, as they say, is another story. But taking what we do have, legal or not: 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, 9 Supreme Court Justices (as well as a plethora of Federal Court assigns) and the White House/Presidential Administration (growing like an outbreak of head lice); What is the collective nature of these that equal less than one percent of our country, yet wield so much power?

In a word – “sick”.

And if recent history has shown us anything, it has revealed to us (less than most of us, obviously) that the sickness is pervasive – every party, every gender, every ethnic background, every age…every “demographic” one could use to describe this collective reveals the same sickness. And the sickness has “gone viral” into every branch and reach of the Federal Government; from Pennsylvania Avenue to the dirt trails walked by US “contractors”, all over the world. It is epic.

I am not a doctor. What I know about medicine is only slightly more than that of any average American. But fortunately, even the average American knows what to do when a pandemic virus breaks out – quarantine the affected, that the healthy may be spared. Yet, we do not quarantine – we “re-elect”…the same dynasties, over and over – the same “carriers”.

Was 9/11 in “inside job”? For years I did not even consider it. For years, I did not even WANT to know or even imagine the implications of that being true. To do so, would destroy most everything I held sacred and loved about my country – America. But one day, after many years, after suffering vicariously through my eldest son, who walked the deserts of Iraq in an Army uniform from the onset, I began to examine the “official story”. I did NOT do this to find culpability, but to hush those “un-patriotic, America-hating” neighbors of mine – the “degenerates”. Right now, many of you reading this are feeling that exact same angst – I understand.

After two years of intense study, careful examination of “the report” versus what I know about building construction – over twenty-five years of it, not including architectural studies in college, my thoughts…my FACT-BASED thoughts, formed a different view than the one I had hoped was true. As with any “fair judge”, I had to set aside most of my prejudices and examine the evidence. I had to examine the video footage, along with exhaustive “eye-witness” testimony, as well as consider other experts, far greater than my own knowledge of structural materials, if I were ever to arrive at an un-biased verdict.

As for me, the verdict is in – GUILTY!

Guilty of what, I’m just not sure, other than knowing that our government has lied to us about what really happened on that day – “The Day” that changed the lives of Americans in so many ways – none of which, I argue, for the better.

May the many, many lives that have been lost as a result of that tragedy rest in peace. May the families of all those who have suffered, not only as a direct result of those events, but suffered for all that followed as well, be comforted in knowing that one day – and that day will come, we will all know the truth.

And for that heartfelt prayer, I guess you can call me a “Truther”, too.

So be it…I have been set free. God bless America – may our government find her “goodness” again.

-Jim Callihan