America — 9/11 — Freedom’s Price

Posted @ 5:42 pm - Filed under Sez Me

Each year on this day my first thought is of the families of those murdered that infamous day. I think of the kids who barely, or never knew their mom or dad or both. The spouses whose broken hearts have never been the same since the moment they learned their worst nightmare had come true. The parents who lost their children.

As a nation, a people, we responded as history has shown we would. America represents freedom to the world. We understand the price of our freedom.

I’ll never forget a pivotal moment in my learning curve as a very young man. A grizzled retired Army officer explained to me in no uncertain terms, the price of freedom.

He said nowhere in history was there a nation whose people enjoyed freedom, who hadn’t purchased that freedom with military victory. Americans know this, as we earned our original freedom as a nation through victory in the Revolutionary War. We all know the other times our freedom has been seriously challenged, and how we, in the end, prevailed. The common denominator? Military victory.

The freedom of 3,000 Americans was taken by force seven years ago today. Let’s come together as a country by remembering them and those they left behind, through our thoughts, deeds, and prayers. This day has to be such a painful reminder of their loss. A country coming together, focused on them, is what we can offer.

When it comes down to it, we can argue amongst ourselves, but outsiders beware. We will come together as a family.

Let’s do that today for those who lost so much. They’re part of the American family, and need us today.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Sez Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 comments to “America — 9/11 — Freedom’s Price”

David Shafer on September 12th, 2008 at 12:27 pm said:

  • Yes, lets remember those who perished on 9/11.
    However, your old Army guy is wrong. India with Gandhi led the way. The anti-apartheid movement led by Mandela. And even here in the good old USA, the civil rights movement led by King, Jr. All based on non-violence and successful in gaining freedom!

BawldGuy on September 12th, 2008 at 1:15 pm said:

  • David — India was protected by England’s military power. They’ve retained their freedom through military superiority and militarily superior allies ever since.

    South Africa has no military threats in the area. Their problems have come from within. There are no countries on that continent that threaten them. As soon as there is, they’ll fight for or lose their freedom.

    Apparently India agrees with this principle, because they’ve decided nuclear weapons are absolutely necessary to their continued freedom. So much for Ghandi like behavior. Ghandi was indeed an incredible example of what a peaceful approach can accomplish — when you have no enemies who care about what you have at the moment.

    Military victory precedes freedom.

David Shafer on September 12th, 2008 at 5:39 pm said:

  • Bawld Guy,
    I only offered up several examples to demonstrate that absolutist statements are almost always wrong. I made no claims that the majority of cases are not an “eye for a eye” philosophy or the “one with the best military wins” isn’t a majority outcome. By the way, what Ghandi did was point to the possibility of different action. Now military or terrorist behavior is a choice since we have seen a couple of “isolated” cases where non-violent resistance has worked to throw off oppressors. But as long as people believe that using the military is the “only” way to react when violence is directed toward a country, then it will be the “only” way countries act. Just because this is the way people have always reacted, doesn’t mean it is right or even efficient.
    As a child of a career military officer (WWII, Korea, Vietnam) and a women who was a young girl in London during WWII I can assure you I honor our military members; appreciate their work. My family’s history in the military goes back to the Civil War (or the “War of Northern Aggression” as it is called here!)

    However, we no longer can say that the only possible reaction to violence is our own violence. Ghandi demonstrated that we now have other choices. And this is the important point! That humans still continue to behave in the “violence begets violence” paradigm does not prove the point. Other successful strategies now exist! Here’s to real human freedom; the freedom to choose your own reaction to violence!

    OK, off my soap box now!

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