How can we be so ungrateful?

I was in my dentist's waiting room that infamous September morning. Pearl Harbor of the new millennium was vividly playing out on television as repetitive clips of airliners slicing into the World Trade Center towers played again and again, as though news producers were hoping that the next replay would have a better outcome. As the day wore on, one unbelievable story after another interrupted the loop of video clips.

I've seen some crazy and unbelievable things on this job, but as the sun set on that day, I was numbed by what I had witnessed. I remember an announcer stating that America had entered a new era; terrorism had struck American soil and our lives were never going to be the same.

President Bush came to ground zero and inspired everyone there. Thousands of New York firemen, police and emergency services workers rushed to help strangers. We watched as many of them died beneath the collapsing towers. As the day wore on, piece by piece, bucket by bucket, they searched for survivors. They searched for strangers that they had never met. Giving the best of themselves in a dark hour, Americans rallied to bolster each other and gave what they had to help someone, anyone, that they didn't know that had either survived or was beneath the rubble.

9/11 is the greatest tragedy I have seen in my lifetime. It won't be the worst tragedy I will see in my lifetime. Already, only eight short years after Islamic fundamentalists committed mass murder in the name of their god, Americans themselves are turning on their country and beginning to wander down a dark path that is weakening America, softening it for a knockout punch by another terrorist movement.

Yesterday I followed a car displaying a bumper sticker that read "I'm already against the next war". I shook my head. Earlier that day I had watched a documentary that revealed the living casualties of the Iraq and Afghanistan war efforts. Young Americans are serving in these wars to preserve what the 9/11 terrorists wanted to destroy; freedom, democracy, liberty, all that we take for granted every morning when we awake.

Almost 3,000 Americans died from the 9/11 attacks. Another 5,000-plus have died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. These numbers don't reflect the tens of thousands of lives that are affected by the death of that one individual. The numbers are terrible. But more terrible would be the death of the American way that we seem to be taking for granted each day. While certain death unfolded above them, rescuers rushed to help eight years ago today. Every day, frightened soldiers rush forward to do their part to ensure that tomorrow we can again awaken unmolested one more peaceful morning. You can send them your support here.

Yet, there are dissenters, conspiracy theorists and protesters that clamor and accuse. They are tearing our country down from within. Our constitution gives them the freedom to do that. Yet, citizen treason in the name of constitutional rights is still treason.

It seems a time to build nationalism and to build America to withstand what is a predictably violent future. It is time to pull together to preserve this country that we love. It is never a time to pull against each other. We live in the greatest country in the history of the modern world. We wake up everyday to the peaceful routine of our lives. We can't be naive to the plotting terrorists that are waiting for their next chance to attack. We can't be naive to the sacrifices made to preserve our peaceful way of life. How can we be so ungrateful? What will you do today to contribute to make America strong?