Go ahead. Take a moment.

I waited. I flipped back and forth among the three major networks this morning, and waited. There was a ten-second blurb here or there, but that was it. More important things to discuss, I guess, like Jodie Foster's new movie, and Roger Federer, and mortgage rates.

I'm told that the news channels are covering the memorial, but how many average folks watch the news channels anymore? They watch the entertainment networks. The alphabet soup networks. And on those channels, it was all shiny, happy people.

Six years later, and it's all shiny, happy people.

I narrowly avoided getting into an argument with a coworker this morning about who and why and for what reason and Saddam and Afghanistan and "finishing the job" here but not there. My boss intervened and said it wasn't the time or place, and the young lady and I grinned at each other and said "sorry." That's how it works, America. Stepping back from the political rage and realizing that all it's doing is keeping us from our work. And then smiling and saying "sorry." That's how you build a free and unified people.

I'm upset that people want to move past this day like it doesn't exist, like it never existed. It did. I shouldn't have to say that. But I do. Because apparently people are starting to forget.

There are still folks who think it was an "inside job" and that Bush is the AntiChrist or Hitler and that he and his minions will cause another attack to "justify staying in power."

(For the record, if he tried to extend his presidency beyond his Constitutionally-allowed second term, I'd be one of the first at the barricades, okay? You don't screw with that. I just can't fathom that he'd ever do that.)

There are folks who think that the War on Terror is just a "bumper sticker." People who say the Administration is playing up fears in order to stay in power. (Even news networks imply this; keep an eye out for CNN's "What color is fear? CNN--Get Facts. Not Fear." commercials.) People who don't think the threat is real anymore, at least not as much as it was. I beg to differ.

Look, I know you're busy. You've got a job, or school, or family stuff going on. You've got things to do. We're a very busy people.

But take a minute. Remember that day. Remember how you felt. Remember how we responded.

Ask yourself if you still think that it was all a bad dream, or a one-time event, or an inside job, or the fault of an evil president who should have done more.

Or maybe, just maybe, consider that it was the act of a band of evil mass-murderers, whose ideological bent is for the destruction of all those who disagree with their twisted theology. Consider that it was an act of vile darkness that has since been perpetrated in different forms, in different situations, to different countries.

And then ask yourself what our response should be, now, six years later.

Do we blame? Do we argue? Do we score political points? Or do we get to work?


[Links I'm reading today: Rob at Say Anything, a bunch of stuff at Wizbang, Malkin, Lileks, among others.]