I doubt any American can forget what day this is or where they were when the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center burned and fell. It is seven years now since a group of Islamic terrorists decided to attack America on her own soil for for their own bogus agenda of pseudo religious hatred. We were not at war with Osama Bin Laden or any if his minons. They attacked, on the flimsiest of self serving political excuses, not military opponents but thousands of innocent civilians in New York, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon. I wondered then, as I wonder now, why Muslims in America as well as all around the world did not speak out forcefully against Islamic terrorism or offer aid to those trapped beneath the rubble. Instead, courageous Americans, police, firefighters, search and rescue civilians with their dogs did what they could. In some cases, losing or shortening their own lives in the doing. I salute them for the seventh time. We do not forget them or their courage.

I despise and condemn Osama Bin laden if he still lives and those who follow his twisted vision of hatred to Jews and Christians and oppression of women. Nothing I have seen, read, or heard in seven years makes me feel that the religion of Islam is a religion of peace.

While I thought at the time and still think today that our invasion of Iraq was ill advised and precipitous and has brought our country nothing but expensive mistakes, I continue to support fully the courage, devotion to duty, and commitment of our men and women in military uniform. I still hope for peace, but given the continuation of oppression and terrorism around the world I do not expect it.

Here, for the seventh time, is a poem written for 9-11.

SEPTEMBER MORN

Our eyes fully opened

cannot be safely closed again.

Pain, drawn in blood upon our souls

is pain forever etched

from one moment, on one ordinary day, when

we looked, in horror, upon a corner of Hell.

We learned, too late for the lambs

how hatred ignites, consumes worlds

when one leads, who personifies evil.

Remember, Lucifer was once an angel

and had the option, not to fall from Grace!

From drifting ashes of the towers

massive grave of thousands slain

nameless people, now heroes all,

from hope robbed by crimson flames

our true innocence, one surrendered

seems lost, forever.

On that day, one September morn

our hearts so heavy in our breasts

the taste of shock so bitter in our mouths,

we arose unbowed, vowing in one voice

that America would endure

seeking justice, for those so deeply mourned.

Now, as then, we must defend our cause

freedom, liberty, and justice for humankind

saluting our murdered comrades,

those we'll meet again at Heaven's gate.

We are changed forever

and at cost we never chose to pay

the blood of three thousand lambs yet calls

asking that we do not forget

one September morn,

that horror day, when the towers fell.