The airwaves and print media are saturated with remembrances, memorials and 9-11 mania. We are asked to observe a moment of silence, a virtual moment of silence, and endure countless hours of survivors and loved one’s remembering the horror of the day.

My e-mail is flooded with coin offers, commemorative mugs, and t-shirts etc…

Not to be outdone, I received a heartfelt and touching remembrance e-mail from a realtor, somehow tying patriotism and honoring the victims of this senseless terror event to a nice 3 bed/2 bath bungalow with recent upgrades.

I mean no disrespect to the victims of the horrific attack, nor their families. But this country has taken the 9-11 hysteria way too far. I for one will no longer endure the horror each year. Remember, yes; participate in madness, no thank you.

Somehow 19 men of Middle Eastern descent with box cutters (we could round up this many in a New York taxi stand or a half dozen 7-11 stores) changed the fabric of this nation’s heart & soul.

To say we perhaps over reacted to this tragedy is not a stretch. In the years that followed we Americans compromised the very freedoms and rights, both civil and human that made us a great nation. We accepted a downgrade of our civil liberties, embraced torture, and have spent a decade at war with an invisible enemy. We invaded a country with no ties to the attacks, and as a result took thousands upon thousands of innocent lives, both our enemies and the sacrifices of our own sons and daughters.

We have run up war deficits of $ 1.25 trillion dollars to date, with no real end in sight, in this quest for the invisible enemy, or truth be told vengeance. A decade later the mastermind behind the plot, Bin Laden taken out by a Special Forces group numbering less than 100. Found in the backyard of our Ally Pakistan, a country we did not invade.

Meanwhile back home, a different war erupted as deficits mounted. Perhaps in our search for understanding or a concrete place to assign blame, we have engaged in a political civil war. Our country once so proud and strong with a sense, purpose and unity has fragmented. A different kind of war has erupted. Ironically, the very people we held in high esteem in the days immediately following 9-11, our first responders have come under the microscope by a political party, as responsible in part for our deficits. A movement is under way to strip even more rights and dignity from them via union busting.

Hypocritical politicians a decade later debate and deny insurance coverage to the very Fire and Police personnel who dealt with the tragedy at ground zero. Their very way of life as middle class American’s is now in jeopardy. They join the legions of other middle class Americans now asked to pay for the folly caused by our elected politicians who screwed up the handing of the disaster,and their actions that followed.

Sadly in damaging the psyche and the economy of the country, the terrorists may have succeeded. We debate a jobs bill for our own people that costs less than the debt mounted to fight an invisible enemy.

So pardon me if I fail to wave the flag and mourn with the false patriots who use the events of 9-11 to further damage the country and continue on the path of self-destruction.

In each human being we carry our own heart calendar of devastation. It may be marked by the loss of certain loved ones, or horrific events in our own past. We mourn and remember in our own way.

I will always remember the events of 9-11 and the decade that has followed. But I mourn far more the loss of what we as Americans shared on 9-12 2001. We had a sense of unity as a country, a resolve to make things right and rebuild. We were all Americans on 9-12, political party aside.

Perhaps we are missing the lesson of history, and should honor the victims of 9-11 by living as we did on 9-12 2001.
I’m not certain they would be proud of what we have become since.