September 11, 2001 - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The GOOD includes the incredible courage and devotion to duty shown by the firefighters and police officers of New York City. In their repeated attempts to rescue victims trapped in the World Trade Towers, 388 firefighters lost their lives. This incredible number includes 21 chiefs, 20 captains and 47 lieutenants. The New York City Police Department lost 75 personnel attempting to save and protect people in and around the buildings. One New York City high school, Staten Island High, lost 23 alumni in 9/11, of which 50 % were firefighters or police officers.

We shall also save a special place in our hearts and memories for the people, including especially Captain Jason Dahl, plus the 40 passengers on flight 93, who deliberately crashed their plane in the Pennsylvania woods, rather than landing on the White House or the Capitol building.

The BAD includes the 3030 people who lost their lives that day in the Towers, in Flight 93 and at the Pentagon. It includes also the casualties and the incredible hardships faced by our troops and our agents fighting Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and in more than 100 countries around the world. When any misguided know-nothing cusses out the CIA, remind him of the sacrifice made by Mike Spann, a CIA agent who was the first to lose his life in Afghanistan defending America. The BAD must also include the certain knowledge that thousands of radical and inhuman Muslim terrorists hate us and want us dead for no other reason than that we are a free people.

The UGLY has to be the short duration of time that the hate-America crowd muttered patriotic thoughts as they considered that these catastrophes were really all our fault. While American soldiers are fighting and dying, and cruel, barbaric people are planting bombs and cutting off heads, this crowd is worrying about possible slights to the Koran, or prisoners wearing panties at Abu Ghraib. As a Bush Administration official said, "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers"