[Vision2020] Our Finest Hour

[Tom Hansen]

>From this morning's (September 10, 2006) "Face the Nation" commentary by Bob
Schieffer -

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Our Finest Hour
9/11 Made Us All Heroes

By Bob Schieffer

I can't even remember where it was, but in the months after 9/11 I was
giving a lecture when a young person rose with a question. 

He said, "you keep talking about the brave Americans but aren't the people
who flew those airplanes into the twin towers heroes too? After all, they
believed so deeply in their cause, they were willing to give their lives for
it." 

I was stunned. 

"No," I told him, "those people are not heroes nor can they ever be. They
deliberately took the lives of innocent men, women and children to promote
their cause. No cause, even a noble cause, is worth that." 

"Americans did the opposite, over and over," I said, "they risked their
lives - some gave their lives - for no reason or reward except to save the
innocent." And not just at Ground Zero and the Pentagon but all over America
people went back to work, opened their homes to those without homes,
Congress passed emergency legislation, partisan differences faded, road rage
vanished as the country came together as it had not come together since
World War II. 

Sadly, much of that feeling has drifted away but I like to believe that deep
down it is still there in all of us. We must never forget the dark day that
was 9/11, but we must always remember it led to America's finest hour. 

We were all heroes that day. We had to be.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Vandalville, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.