Over the last few days I have repeatedly heard the question asked “Where were you on 9/11?” Who the hell cares. If you weren’t there, your location is utterly irrelevant. What happened, happened. Why do people insist on dwelling on such trivial shit? Americans in particular seem to love wallowing in the past. People who where alive at the time still think about where they were when JFK died 43 years ago. It is important to be aware of history and learn lessons about what to do and not to do so you don’t repeat the same mistakes. But it is even more important to live in the present. Replaying the video of past events ad naseum is neither helpful nor productive. It just contributes to the urge to wallow. We all know what happened. We all saw it. Let’s look at what is going on around us today. By watching the past over and over it just feeds the climate of fear. By keeping people afraid, it makes it easier to persuade people to give up their freedoms. The reality is that the chances of being a victim a terrorism are so infinitesimally small that it really isn’t worth being afraid of, not to mention fomenting fear is the whole point. If you live in fear you are more willing to tolerate the government watching you all the time, listening to your private phone calls, make you show your ID all the time. You might be willing to let people in power send your kids off to fight and die in a foreign land for now apparent reason. You might not be able to read or write what you want. You might even tolerate people being arrested and locked away indefinitely without trial or charges.

Hey people! Start living in the present and pay attention to the gutting of the constitution! Take a minute to remember on Monday, but then when the replays come on, turn off the TV and the radio and go for a walk and think about why you want to protect freedom. Then get write or read something that you might not be able to do without freedom. Don’t let politicians convince you to give up freedom to save it. If you give it up now it is already lost.