I will never forget the day. I had just gotten my 3-month-old son his bottle, and was brushing my 3-year-old daughter's hair, getting her ready for pre-school. I turned on the TV, and was greeted by the sight of a burning building, and an announcement that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I was shocked, but thought it some tragic accident. Until I saw the second plane deliberately crash into the second tower. I don't think I've ever been more shocked, upset, or angry in my entire life. Frightened, as well: my wife was at that time in her office in downtown Chicago, on the 20th floor, right next to a tall building that eerily resembled the two burning towers in New York. I immediately got on the phone and told her what was happening. The news was just starting to filter out, and she was scared. It remains the one time I've ever commanded my wife to do anything in the 14 years we've been married: I told her to get out of the city and get home, even if she had to take a cab the entire way. Not that she really needed to be commanded, just nudged. Thank God she made it home okay; as we learned later, the Sears Tower was on the target list for that day. I also had a cousin at the Pentagon that day; thankfully he wasn't hurt either. But more than 3000 innocent lives were destroyed that day.
One of the things I remember most about the next few days, amid the chaos and uncertainty and the fear, waiting for any news, was the very strange phenomenon of empty skies. I'm sure many people in urban areas can relate to this. We live not far from Midway Airport in Chicago, and as such a plane flies overhead, either just taken off or making its final approach, on a near-constant basis. You can look up at any given time from 6am to midnight and see a plane in the air, whether from Midway or O'Hare airport farther north. But because of President Bush's sensible act, all air traffic had been grounded. So the skies were empty. It was an instance of not noticing something that's there every day until it's gone. And it freaked me out, more than a little.
I wrote a poem about a week later, just trying to get my feelings out, to express my rage and frustration. In the poem, I refer to the jihadists as crazed fanatics that had hijacked an ancient and noble religion. How wrong I was. I had taken comparative religion classes in college, but as with any survey course, you only touch on the very basics of a topic; I was not so much mis-informed as woefully under-informed. As I began to do more research, and listen more closely to the news, and pay closer attention to global events, I experienced enlightenment. I came to realize what a vicious, brutal, ignorant, hateful, and repellent religion islam really is. Not even so much a religion, but a maniacal death cult based on the psychotic ramblings of a murdering, pedophile bandit. A "religion of peace" that has never been spread by anything other than the sword. A degraded heresy, an enemy of freedom and liberty, hardly worthy of recognition, completely unworthy of respect. Which is why I refuse to capitalize "muslim" and "islam".
That enemy still prowls at our gates. Despite the misinformation spread by the media and talking heads of the muslim world, the West is at war with islam. The islamists will not rest until sharia dominates the world. There is no middle ground, no hope for a true peace: you are either dar al-islam, the "house of peace", or dar al-hard, the house of war. The current president will have you believe otherwise. He is wrong; it is one of his many lies. There are no "moderate" muslims. They either practice jihad or support it. None of them denounce it. That is important to remember. When the chips fall, your friendly muslim neighbor will not side with freedom and liberty, they will side with oppression and enslavement.
Always remember that islam, the "religion" in which the prez was raised, caters to and apologizes to, is at war not only with America, but Western Civilization, and any other civilization not under their dominance. There are over 50 shooting wars in the world today; self-professed islamic forces of jihad are involved in every single one of them.
And NEVER FORGET their actions on September 11th, 2001.
God Bless America, may His Divine Grace guide us through these troubled times, and may He give us strength to defeat our enemies and thwart the agents of Satan.
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