Celebrate

September 11th will never again be easy. Ever since the terror attacks and the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans in 2001, the day is always difficult.

Each year we do our best to honor, and justly so, our fallen comrades--our fellow Americans. Tributes at the World Trade Center site, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, PA memorialize the event at the start of the day, and for the rest of each September 11th since, we walk around like zombies.

Surely there is no appropriate greeting like "Happy Patriot Day" to bandy about. There are no cookouts or 9/11 parties that we could throw. No one feels much in the mood to celebrate...and really, can you blame them?

With only 5 years behind us, the pain is still strong...the memory still with us. As we look to the future--twenty, 50, 100 years from now, the pain may diminish (even if we promise never to forget), but the 11th of September will continue to occur each year, right between the 10th and the 12th. The pain will return.

Many have wondered how we will commemorate the occasion. Some would like a national holiday, complete with a day off from work or school. I would like to offer another solution: celebration. I'm not talking about balloons and champagne, but celebration of a different nature.

Think about it. One personal lesson that so many learned on that fateful day was how precious life is. Even today, when asked how life has changed, a common answer among Americans is "I value life more." So do it!

Make note of these small things. Celebrate that you can still wake up at 7am, buy a cup of coffee and a cream cheese muffin, hop on the bus, and go to work. You can still pick up your daily newspaper and read something that infuriates you--and you can actually disagree out loud! You can criticize your President, buy a pack of cigarettes, watch "reality" TV, and then go to bed after praying to whichever god you choose, or not pray at all!

The point is this: Life in America goes on! Five years ago, a group of men who hate America and wish to see Americans die, targeted our military (the Pentagon), our financial institutes (the World Trade Center), and our government (where exactly that fourth plane was headed is still unclear, but evidence suggests it was either The White House or The Capitol Building). They weren't just trying to destroy buildings and kill people. They were trying to plant terror in the hearts of every American. But we have overcome!

So celebrate your freedoms. Celebrate your rights and your privileges that come from living in one of the only nations on Earth that understands that freedom isn't granted by governments, but is taken by force by the thirsting soul of man. Celebrate the iron-clad will of the greatest society in the history of mankind.

Living your live without terror in your hearts is how you, the Average Joe and Jane, can fight this war. Freedom is your weapon. Fire at will!