Thoughts in a Haystack

It's been 3,287 days since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. There's not much more to today's date than that.

While it is probably near the top of the most lives taken by a small, non-governmental group in a single day, on the scale of human self-butchery it barely warrants a blip. The Rwanda genocide, not to mention the Holocaust, Hiroshima, Dresden and thousands of other crimes we have committed against ourselves, make it pale in comparison.

Sadly, many in my home country, which has, at least, aspired to implement the ideals of the Enlightenment, have let this act of hatred, cruelty and unreason drive them from their own senses.

To those who would justify senseless war ... you have let the terrorists win, since that is what they want. To those who would justify torture, supposedly in the name of the "greater good" ... you have let the terrorists win, since that is what they want. To those who would restrict the rights of their fellow Americans to freedom of religion and speech ... you have let the terrorists win, since that is what they want.

Make no mistake, the real significance of this day lies in what we have become, not in what happened back then.
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