[Paul Bunyan]

September 11th, 2001.

I don't remember the exact time, but I was awakened at about 6am by a phone call from a childhood friend in New York. I live on the West Coast, and so events had transpired at a 3-hour difference from NY time.

"Yo dude, sorry to wake you, but you've got to turn on your TV right now. There's been a terrorist attack. The Word Trade Center was hit!"

I sat up and turned to Fox News, and there it was. An image of one of the WTC towers in smoke. A few minutes later, a plane was seen hitting the second tower. The horrible events unfolded live, as I watched in shock. I just could not believe my eyes.

The world had changed forever.

Looking back seven years later, I now know that the attack was not the fault of the Muslim terrorists alone. Centuries of hatred and Jihad against Chritstians and Jews had made popular support for terrorism an integral part of the Muslim culture.

As the news of the attack and the 3,000 dead reached the Middle East, overjoyed Palestinians danced on the roofs of Gaza, celebrating al Qaeda's "victory."

Despite 9/11, Arab and Muslim culture has not changed. The Muslim world is rife with support for terrorism, and even American and European Muslims report a staggering amount of support for terrorist attacks against their host countries (and presumably against Israel, too).

But Muslim culture is not alone in its culpability. Our own society has gone mad with political correctness. We now know that 9/11 would have never happened if FBI agents were not intimidated by potential accusations of "discrimination" against the 9/11 masterminds and Muslims in general.

Seven years later, we as a country have spent untold amounts of taxpayer money on waging a war against terrorism. We are virtually alone in this expense. We have turned our own airports into a series of humiliating checkpoints, and have harassed and delayed millions of American commuters, as a direct result of Arab terrorism.

We have lost thousands of American soldiers in Iraq, a place into which we should never have ventured in the first place, but which has since become a center for Islamic terrorism that must be dealt with. Yet, at the same time, we virtually ignore Iran, which is as big of a threat.

Seven years later, I can confidently say that the forces of political correctness are alive and well -- unlike the victims of 9/11. Have we not learned a lesson from 9/11? The Western world cannot coexist peacefully with the Islamist ideology that is at war with us, and that war is taking place on our soil, not around the world. Hezbullah and al Qaeda sleeper agents are already among us, just waiting for their orders to destroy our society.

So, let's stop allowing our own foolish political correctness to stand in the way of securing our country. Support legislation that gives the FBI the legal tools and funding to effectively deal with the local Islamist threat.

[Paul Bunyan]

My daughter is still grateful she decided to get her MBA or she would have been sitting at her desk on the 56th floor of the South Tower in the World Trade Center that morning. She was a broker/liason officer having been transferred from Atlanta with Morgan Stanley. She lost two friends from other brokerages, her husband lost many more and they flew up for each funeral and memorial service, despite the improvishment of graduate school. I don't think they will ever forget it. I know I will not, nor will anyone in our families. Her mother-in-law watched from her office, in disbelief, the 2nd plane fly into the 2nd, South, Tower. Then to her horror the South Tower collapse only 45 minutes later. That was when she and her husband walked to Grand Central Station and got on the last train out of Manhattan that day.

But too many have forgotten. Yesterday, on 9/11, mine was the only house in my pathetic subdivision (92 houses) that was flying the American flag! Can you believe that???? I went over to the kid's house for dinner and about half of their neighbors flags were flying. Better neighborhood from the price and patriotism standpoint!

What does this mean? Does it take being close to a catastrophy to remember it year after year, and to acknowledge that terrorism is still a threat? I don't care what the Pew figures say, they are known for a very PC and liberal slant to what ever they do and I simply do not trust what they put out.