9/12/11

I went to the south of France to attend a wedding of this lovely young man
who stands here with my cousin, his mother, before the wedding ceremonies
in a tiny, comfortable church in the little village of Puyricard (near Aix en Provence).
This remarkable photo was taken by my wife.

I just couldn’t add one more 9/11 piece to the thousands that were already available for you to read!
by Charlie Leck

I spent nearly the last two weeks in Europe – traveling from Paris to the south of France (Aix en Provence and the little town of Puyricard) and then on to Prague in the Czech Republic. I’ll have something to say about those travels in the next few blogs.

Today, however, I just want to report my observation that every big and little newspaper and every columnist in the western political hemisphere had something to see about the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Europe's newspapers were filled with 9/11 stuff. There were commendations for and to the United States for its actions in the last ten years. There were scathing criticisms of our nation, too. There were projections about the future of terrorism in both Europe and America. There were sad columns that recollected the awful day – absolutely tear jerking pieces that brought back more memories than I cared to deal with.

I returned to the states late Saturday night and that was just in time to get a full dose of the memorial services and the special TV productions that replayed the events of ten years ago.

To tell you the absolute truth, I'm exhausted by it all. I cried a pail full of tears listening to the families of those who lost loved one in the attacks. I felt renewed anger at that part of the world that wants to wage war on us because of its radical religious differences with us.

Enough! Please!

America dragged itself into two wars over that 9/11 attack. They were both wars we should not have waged. We tore apart the better part of a whole generation of young men – and some women. We’ve spent enormous amounts of the nation’s precious resources in fighting a fruitless and meaningless war in two parts of the world we absolutely do not understand.

I love the memorial park that is being built on the site of the two Trade Towers. Next spring I’ll go to New York so I can see them in their finished and final state. The preview glimpses I got of the memorial really pleased me.

Now the day is past. We’ve moved on to 9/12 and beyond. Let’s get our country working again (in more ways than one). Let’s become what we’ve dreamed we can be. That will be the best tribute we can pay to those who died in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania on 11 September 2001.

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