It was a blue-sky late summer morning when Al Qaeda terrorists in hijacked planes brought down the World Trade Center, attacked the Pentagon, crashed a plane into a field in Pennsylvania, killed more than 3,000 people, and made a mockery of America’s belief in its invincibility. And two decades later, our nation in the midst of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic and shocked by the chaotic end of the Afghanistan War — continues to grapple with the aftermath of that day.

One enduring legacy from 9/11 each year is how our nation came together at a time of dire need and crisis. First Responders, and Volunteers risking their lives to save others, and a City and nation, uniting to rebuild and fight back. Our brave soldiers answered the call of their nation and headed to Afghanistan, to degrade Al Quada, which worked and of course, we got rid of Bin Laden. However, 20 years later, the Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, became never ending wars, wars which we could never win and only endure. By 2019, the U.S. had spent %6.5 trillion on post 9/11 wars and we lost 200,000 civilians and 7000 U.S deaths in Iraq alone and thousands in Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. History.

Now we are out of Afghanistan and the Taliban is back.

After the U.S. military was unleashed, 83% of Americans approved. Meanwhile, nearly 8 in 10 Americans displayed the flag. More than 6 in 10 felt a surge of patriotism. And there was record-high trust in the federal government and record-high approval ratings for President George W. Bush and even the news media.

Today, the United States loses the equivalent of a 9/11 attack – some 3,000 people – every second or third day to COVID-19.

The virus has killed more than 650,000 in the United States. And yet far from responding with one voice, Americans can’t even agree to vaccinate themselves and end this nightmare. Trust in the government, media and President Joe Biden are at or near record lows. The result is a stew of fantastic lies percolating through social media asserting that the shots are unsafe.

This division has resulted in disproportionate suffering, with people living in low-vaccination states four times more likely to be hospitalized and over five times more likely to die.

And while the new surge in COVID-19 fueled by a frighteningly more contagious delta variant has compelled more people to receive shots, still little more than half the population is fully vaccinated and America remains more skeptical of the vaccine than almost any other country. And polling shows a hardcore segment of the population adamantly opposed to the shots.

This vitriol is not confined to vaccinations. School board meetings across the country discussing commonsense steps to require face masks in an era of contagion are becoming battlegrounds for dissident parents with fistfights in Florida, Nazi salutes in Pennsylvania and threats of revenge in Tennessee. In Arizona, a principal was menaced by three men threatening to take her into custody with zip-tie handcuffs for enforcing health department face-mask requirements for school.

Political, racial divisions are at an all time high, and our nation is in many ways more divided than we were during the Civil War. President Biden at his inauguration challenged us to end this uncivil war we are waging in the United States. We are not even close to doing that.

After the nation was attacked on 9/11, Americans came together and for two decades prevented another major terrorist event here. After the nation was effectively attacked by a deadly virus the past two years, quite the opposite has unfolded.

America learned the lesson of unity on Sept. 11, 2001. The only way we can honor the victims of 9/11 and the soldiers, who served in our wars is to once again learn the lessons of unity. For only then, can we honor the words of President Lincoln, who reminded us on the fields of Gettysburg, “That we hereby resolve that these Dead shall not have died in vain, and that this Nation Shall Have a New Birth of Freedom and that a Government of the People, By the People, and For the People shall never perish from the Earth”.

God Bless the United States of America.

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My 9/11 Message from Pod TV:
https://youtu.be/rG9XYF6wSVo?t=101