A Phoenix Rising... From the Ashes

My wife and I talked over lunch about the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony and its effects on us personally and on societies local and global.  What she said struck me so powerfully that I had to quote her:

"This is the opposite--this is the antithesis--of 9/11.  What I mean is that what I felt that morning, the thought that history was changing, that American history would be marked pre-9/11 and post-9/11; and that the way the world and all Americans see this country would shift in some amazing--and even scary--ways.  This day is the opposite of that, in a way.  It's...like a phoenix rising from the ashes."

I formally invite DJ Jay Smooth to expound on the thought (and no, I don't agree with each of his points, but the overwhelming theme is on target):

Why I'm Happy, Why I'm Not Satisfied

We have permission to be happy while maintaining our practical perspective.  America has signed a treaty with her children, a promise to learn from the cornucopia of our past blunders by walking in Dr. Martin Luther King's--and, for that matter, my mother's--dream to live as humanly and as humanely as we REALLY can in our country's grand area.  Our problems are far from over in many ways, but we--America--are walking our talk again.

Let freedom ring.  Keep walking your talk.  Love somebody just because God loves him or her as much as He loves you.  Talk about tough topics with people--instead of setting people up to look like racists because they don't understand your perspective or your culture.  Open your mind enough to see another human's perspective, and you might change your mind about a few things.  The work IS a part of the dream, believe it or not...

God bless you.  Vaya con Dios.  Salaam 'Alaykum (السلام عليكم).

If I have misspelled or misused the beautiful words of your parent language, forgive me and correct me.  It's my pleasure to learn.  That, as it turns out, is another part of THE DREAM.

How Can I Forget...If I Remember?

I remember waking on September 11, 2001, to a phone call and the thought that my television was playing the oddest disaster film in the history of American film. Wait-- the "film" sported the CNN logo.

A nightmare tapped my shoulder and informed me that he and I would be too close for comfort for many moons to come.

The phone call made the nightmare giggle. My then-wife, who will forever bear the symbol "*"--the same figure that statisticians place beside questionable listed records...and for good reason, spouted a full paragraph in one long sentence:

Are you okay I thought you were dead since CNN said that your command was hit and I didn't know what to think and WHY didn't you answer the phone the first time--that's beside the point--how are you?

She always had a knack for a surprising wakeup.

I assured her in my "the insomniac just finished a night watch, mama" deep bass voice that I was alive and well. Did I hear disappointment? Mmmm...

I woke to the second jet's strike to a tower, and CNN faithfully replayed both towers' destruction over and over again for hours and hours and hours more. Friends lost family members in a 21st-century photo op; friends prayed that the bodies falling and leaping to a sharply vertical certain death were NOT their family members. Tears failed tired eyes, and depression held the well-oiled machine of naval military locked to a shuddering halt. Each sailor and soldier on that base knew that America would thirst vengeance, just as many of us did, and that we would be mobilized in one task or another to fight whatever threat dared to sucker-punch the US of A.

The threat was named Osama bin-Laden.

The threat was named Saddam Hussein.

The threat was named personal liberty in America.

The threat was named the Constitution of the United States of America.

The threat became my country's horribly-led political system. Seven years later, one threat is still in the wind, another is dead; one feels dead until I write, vote, and speak what I think; and the last is still digging its hooks into the parchment that declares the duties and lists the blood-guaranteed rights of Americans. Someone lied and played on our innate humanity to convince my countrymen and me that destroying an enemy requires destroying our humanity and our good sense. Sad.

Let's see how the next seven years play out. I hope that I see real change the next few years. If not, a passport is going to get a brand-new stamp...for good.

As the Panthers used to say, "Heads up, eyes open; fists clenched."



Image reference: http://ideologyofantiterrorism.blogtownhall.com/2008/02/25