I try not to watch 9/11 retrospectives. It is too difficult to relive that horrible day over and over again. But like a moth to a flame, I do it every year with the same result…a sinking sick feeling in my stomach and profound sadness. What did we as a nation miss that allowed that to happen? Could it have been prevented? What signs did we overlook? Appeasement of evil only makes the end consequence greater than it otherwise would have been. Evil exists in the world. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. Attempting to resolve it doesn’t make it go away. Evil is part of the human condition. It must be dealt with swiftly and decisively.
As I watch what is going on with Korea and Iran, I wonder if we have yet to learn the lessons of history. It is much harder now to resolve those issues than it was 10 or 20 years ago. It will be near impossible to resolve those issues 10 years from now. Avoiding bad consequences now only leads to worse consequences later. The world is not John Lennon’s “Imagine.” It is a dangerous place. Twenty years from now…what retrospective will our children be watching on television? Or maybe they will be watching nothing at all.
Mark G. Mangie