Before I knew it September 11th was upon us. It reminded me of that day six years ago. It was one of those horrible event that gets etched indelibly in a persons mind. Something you never forget, something that you remember with crystal clarity for the rest of your life.

Each generation seems to have its own event life this. Our history is filled with them. Whether it was the assassination of Martin Luther King or JFK, the death of Elvis, the fall of the Berlin wall or any number of other incidents they exist frozen in time for the persons who have experienced their memory etching power.

I can remember the sheer outrage that I felt on that day. The shock and disbelief. I was driving to work in Aurora and was just approaching I-88. My radio was tuned to the Mancow show, a then popular “shock” jock.

When I heard them report what happened I honestly thought it was just another joke, another attempt to fool the audience. After a few minutes I knew that it was real. Despite their professional and over the top personalities their masks fell, and the sheer shock and terror of reality bled through the radio.

My god I thought, what the hell is happening I thought.

The soft swish of the revolving door and its scuff marked rotational floor rings welcomed me to work with its usual normalcy. My fellow employees however, were far from normal.

Groups of people huddles around desks with radios. Nervous faces and quite a few crying people would only increase as time went on. I quickly went to target and bought a cheap portal radio.

I can remember thinking that we needed to make them pay for what they had done. “They” were general, “They” applied to an entire country, and “They” only stoked the fire by showing people reacting with almost orgasmic joy to the killing of these innocent people. The dark fury would only build as the day went on.

Not surprisingly, the media coverage of outraged Muslims in the Middle East over this murderous act were scant if any.

America was plunged into a war. A secular war waged on a deeply religious people. If only our fury had been abated before action was taken, we might have recognized it for the losing battle that we now know it to be.

With so many troops now committed, the situation is only getting worse. With a President reluctant to admit what a mistake it was to get into this war, all we can do is ride this nightmare out and hope that the next President is less pig headed and more open to ending this abortion of a war that has claimed so many lives on both sides.