We Are Safer, But Will Our Gains Last?

Matt Mayer / September 11, 2009

On this 8th Anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack, we are without question safer today than we were on that crisp, clear September morning in 2001. With each passing year, the challenge to remain vigilant grows harder as many Americans struggle to make ends meet after losing their jobs, large percentages of their retirement funds, and, in some cases, their homes. The cacophony of noise surrounding America’s debate on health care drowns out the unity of purpose we all felt as the sun set just eight years ago. After suffering the loss of 3,000 people, the destruction of over 220 stories of buildings in downtown New York City, the penetrating hole in our Pentagon, and the charred swath of land in the picturesque hills of Pennsylvania, Americans from across the political spectrum save the finite few too jaded by discarded ideologies came together to pray, console, and communicate in unequivocal terms that, though the scars of a fight we did not seek were now etched into our collective body, we would not be defeated or go quietly into the night. (more…)