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A Year Has Passed
By Andrew D. Basiago
9-11-2


A year has passed, but not the shadow cast by the insanity of your act.
 
A year has passed, and we have seen the magnitude of the pain that you caused the family members and the friends of the 3,000 slain.
 
A year has passed, but in that time, we have seen no evidence that you have ever comprehended the gravity of your crime.
 
Therefore, I have some questions to ask you -- all of you.
 
These questions persist, like the fires that burned within the twisted debris that was once the surpassing glory of the Twin Towers, taken down a year ago today by your twisted plot.
 
*
 
Tell me...
 
When you attacked one nation, did you not attack all nations?
 
When you attacked one nation, under God, did you not do so in the name of God?
 
When you attacked one nation, indivisible, did you think that you would divide that nation, indivisible?
 
When you attacked one nation, with liberty and justice for all, did you think that you would diminish the dedication of that nation to liberty, and justice, for all?
 
When you advanced your agenda of assassination, and sent your associates, and others, to a senseless, fiery death, did you think that you would be achieving anything?
 
When you slit the throats of the beautiful stewardesses, did you champion the cause of equality among all persons, especially women?
 
When you killed the talented pilots, those brave captains of the air, upon whom the lives of hundreds of people depended, including innocent children, did you remember that you, too, were once a child, and did you remember the fears that that child once felt?
 
When you perpetrated these heinous acts of air piracy, these crimes against humanity, did you intend to show us the grandeur of your theory of civilization?
 
When you stole the airplanes, from people more accomplished than you, and more creative, and more productive, and more tolerant, and more devoted to the goodly works that uplift humanity, and then used those planes to knock down the world's two greatest buildings, had you not already shouted from the mountaintop how unaccomplished, and uncreative, and destructive, and intolerant, and pitiful, and small you are?
 
When you destroyed the World Trade Center, those two sleek towers reaching upward toward the heavens, citadels to the idea of how big humanity can be, and murdered the citizens of 80 nations, as they peaceably went about their lives in pursuit of an interdependent planet, did you understand that you were attacking the entire world, a world that now stands in solidarity with the survivors left with the gaping holes in their hearts, a world that has concluded that you, and all who share your methods, are evil?
 
*
 
A year has passed, and it might as well have been a thousand years, for a year after your wicked deeds were waged against the most generous people on Earth, and the buildings fell, and the innocents were killed, and the heroes died, and the smoke rose with the men, the clear light of morning finds you on the wrong side of history.
 
I ask you, my friends, did you think that the people of a nation that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with George Washington at Valley Forge; that fought a bloody Civil War so that all of its citizens could be free; that settled an unsettled continent; that passed through Ellis Island provisioned only with dreams; that braved the trenches at Verdun and the Nazi gun emplacements at Normandy; and then landed men on the desolate face of the Moon, on behalf of all humanity, would somehow tremble, or give personal security a second thought, as they were deployed to the surface of your inhospitable desert?
 
Did you not learn, upon seeing the courage of the hundreds of firefighters, police, and others who rushed into the towers, saving 95% of those inside, only to sacrifice their lives saving people that they did not even know, that we are the sons and daughters of that historical legacy, and as such, are fierce, and fearless, and invincible, and bold?
 
Did you find any individuals of that caliber -- of that heroic stature -- among the common people of your homeland?
 
Did you fail to see, in your spiritual blindness, that we would remain vigilant, and at the same time protect one another?
 
Did you not know that we have always shown a willingness to bear any burden when the fundamental values of liberty and democracy are at stake?
 
Did you believe that you had something revelatory to teach the most religious people on Earth about the nature of God, or faith, or morality?
 
Did you hold fast to some conceited notion that you had a message for the most cooperative nation on Earth about unity, or social equity, or common purpose?
 
Did you imagine that you had something about tolerance to teach a nation that could conceive of, and then implement, a doctrine as tolerant as affirmative action?
 
Have not the young people of your race and your religion, not vied, vigorously, for decades, to find places in the ivied halls of our universities, and jobs in the alabaster towers of our cities, and a new future in the freest and the fairest nation on Earth?
 
Did you wish to instruct the most esteemed political system on Earth about liberty, or justice, or the superiority of your peculiar beliefs?
 
Did you forget the fact that the practitioners of terror are the common enemies of humanity, and will come to ruin, because like all of the tyrants and madmen before them, they are the enemies of peace, and morality, and common decency?
 
Did you fail to learn the lesson, taught by all the wars that humanity has ever fought, and written in the tears and the blood of history, that all human beings are created in the divine image and likeness of their Creator, and as such, should be treated with love, and respect, and dignity?
 
Did you comprehend that we would prefer not to pursue you, but would instead prefer to honor that divine nature within you, but are now, instead, forced, against our will, to hunt you down like the wanton criminals that you are, and kill you, like brute beasts?
 
Did you foresee that that was how you were going to die, as villains, and as cowards, and that you chose that fate for yourselves?
 
Did you appreciate the fact that, ultimately, we will get you, and destroy you, not so much so that you can be taken to a paradise where virgins reside, but, rather, the dung-heap of history, so that your remains can rot in repose with all those who have opposed America, and everything that she represents, and stands for, and defends?
 
Did you find it in your hearts to oppose life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
 
Did you harden your hearts to the truth that America has lifted a lamp, and held it to the future, so that the world could see the future, a future in which the blessings of liberty are now, for the first time in human history, within the vital reach of all human beings?
 
Did you comprehend that because of this fact, America cannot, and will not, and shall not be defeated; that she will not only survive, but prevail; that despite your best efforts, government of the people, and by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from this Earth, but shall someday come to pass for all the world?
 
*
 
A year has passed, and these questions linger in the air like fragments of a nightmare, your psychotic dream, while the divine light that has guided America over the centuries still shines, transcendent, and terrible, and triumphant, across the field of time.
 
Andrew D. Basiago is an American lawyer, journalist, and publisher





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