Soap Box

There are a few days in a lifetime when a certain event is vividly and indelibly imprinted on your memory and you can recall even mundane things that happened before, during or after.

I remember the location and circumstances when I found out about the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Ronnie Van Zant and Toy Caldwell. And I remember well the morning my son, Charlie, called me and told me that a commercial airliner had crashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

My first impression of a terrible aviation accident was short lived as soon the second plane would hit the second tower, then the Pentagon and the crash in the field in Pennsylvania quickly followed and it was obvious that the mainland of the United States of America was under attack.

I think the entire nation was in shock and trepidation, waiting for the other shoes to drop, having absolutely no idea how far it was going to go and how much destruction and carnage there would be at the end of the day.

Of course, the government quickly grounded all but military aircraft and I'm sure that below the public's radar protocols went into effect and our forces around the world were put on high alert status.

The country immediately had several things in common, fear, confusion and soon to follow, a white-hot anger, not to be assuaged by platitudes and political rhetoric, America wanted action, they wanted results, they wanted blood and no amount of presidential statements about Islam being a “peaceful religion” would cool or placate it.

Our lives changed forever that day, you can't catch an airplane, attend a major sporting event or even enter a building of any size without being exposed to the results of the terrorism that had its finest day on September 11, 2001.

Of course, 9/11 was not America's first experience with the dedication and deviousness of the Islamic radicals, but it was the first time we had had to face the fact that the attacks were not just on the streets of Tel Aviv or the backwaters of Africa anymore, they had arrived, full blown on our very doorstep and America was going to have to deal with it up close and personal with a gaggle of, although admittedly fine federal agencies, organizations splintered by budget battles, turf wars and bureaucratic bovine scatology and hindered by the scourge of political correctness so prevalent in much of our government.

We all know about the formation of Homeland Security and the myriad steps taken to pull our intelligence and security entities together to simplify and streamline the flow of information and resources.

Did it work?

Very well to a point, but any organization operating under the thumb of elected officials is only as effective and efficient as the powers that be will allow them to be and therein lies the problem.

When the agencies charged with the protection of the public and the rooting out of the terrorists who hide among us have their hands tied by politicians, forbidden to go here or there, not allowed to profile, even when we know what the enemy looks like and when the worst known terrorists in the world are set free to return to the battlefield and kill more Americans, you have to wonder if America has really learned its lesson.

Will America have to suffer an even more catastrophic attack, nuclear, chemical or biological before we finally batten down the hatches, pull out all the stops and do whatever it takes to truly keep this nation safe?

We know ISIS and the other radical Islamic crazies constantly attempt to insert operatives into America.

In spite of this our president and the Democratic Party candidate want to allow thousands of refugees which we have already been told by ISIS will contain terrorists, into America and our current president even refuses to properly identify our blood enemy.

Have we learned our lesson?

Some of us have.

But apparently, some of us still haven't.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, our police and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

— Charlie Daniels

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Check out "Mexico Again" from Beau Weevils - 'Songs in the Key of E'