Five Years Burning Down the Road

it was a lifetime ago and it was yesterday. So many of us have that day etched in our memory. Chris, do you remember having us over for dinner that night? Do you remember our collective groans when Bush said "we make no distinction"?
Today served as a day of recollection and reflection in my classes. For my rock history course, I played three songs from "The Rising", which is the best 9/11-themed piece of art released thus far. I juxtaposed those songs with country music by Alan Jackson and Toby Keith. I almost started a fight with the Keith song as students voiced thier opinions and tempers rose. To think of such a tragic event and the possibilities of we, as a united nation, rising above to better things, have been so bitterly divided in the name of ideology and political capital. God bless those who were lost and those who lost. For our country, it couldn't have happened at a poorer time to a weaker leader. Naysayers be damned; the illegalities pulled in the name of protecting those so damned fearful they can't think for themselves would not have been executed by President Gore nor Clinton; hell, Bush 41 probably cringes at what he sees his son doing to the Constitution and the office of the President. Isn't it sad that, five years later, I listen to the President's speech with absolute incredulity because everything that has occurred between then and now has been nothing but a giant lie? The Bush Administration's failed putsch for oil and neocon supremacy in the Middle East means that those 3,000 souls died in vain. Tell me how do I begin again? My nation's in ruins...

I do have some good thoughts...my son was actually due to grace us with his presence two years ago today. While he arrived early, there may be a theme running here...