In Memoriam

Eight years ago, our nation was attacked by terrorists acting on behalf of a rogue thread of radical Islamist thought, on a day of devastation unseen since the infamous day in 1941 that the Empire of Japan awoke a sleeping American giant.

These terrorists struck at symbols of American power - economic and political. Their attacks hurt the heart of American enterprise, New York City, and plunged into a source of strategy for the greatest military on the face of the earth, the Pentagon. It would be much later before we would learn that the terrorists had failed in their attempt to destroy the American spirit; even amid fear and ultimate death, a group on board a fourth hijacked airliner would sacrifice themselves in a lonely Pennsylvania field, before the plane could be crashed into the United States Capitol.

Today, on this gorgeous afternoon, I took a long bike ride home from class, and circled the Fayetteville National Cemetery. The rows and rows of white markers that cover that field serve as a reminder of the cost that our country has incurred as the price of freedom. Even more striking are the markers and mausoleum crypts that read "- 2001" or "-2008" or somewhere in between. Those simple markers carry the names of an American soldier or sailor or Marine or airman, and sometimes "Persian Gulf" or "Operation Enduring Freedom." They are reminders of this cost.

It's very easy to grow cynical, particularly as a member of the Left, of nationalism and national pride. It's funny to laugh at the people who say our country's name as 'mer'ca' and things like "These colors don't run." We grow cynical because we recognize the things that we know our country can do better, and the ideals for which we know America can strive.

But eight years ago, a group of terrorists said, "We don't like the things you stand for, and we will kill ourselves and thousands of your civilians to make that known." That day, things changed.

That day, it became important to let the world know that even as liberals or conservatives, Republicans or Democrats, white or black, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or secular, we do buy into an American exceptionalism, and we would stand together to protect our country and the ideals that are enshrined in our collective national identity and our moral imperative to protect the weak and provide for the common defense of freedom.

That is why we mourn on September 11. That is why we mourn for the cost we have accrued over the past eight years in Afghanistan. That is why we wave our American flags with pride. That is why we stand together when the United States faces threats, foreign and domestic.

And that is why we remain the greatest country on the face of this earth.

God bless the United States of America.