The Pendragon's Hall

The Pendragon is furious with his alma mater. Houghton College cannot let a Martin Luther King Jr. Day or a World AIDS Day go by without reminding us all of the great fight still on our hands in regards to racism and disease. Yet on this day, with at least as long and a far more deadly war on our hands, the college chooses not to commemorate at all those who lost their lives on 9/11/2001. This is the reason movies like "United 93" and "World Trade Center" are so vitally important. People need to remember--they need to recall the savage inhumanity of the terrorists and the heroic sacrifice the brave men and women of America, in the military, fire departments, police departments, and hijacked planes made to stand up to the great evil. Five years later, we have not suffered another terrorist attack on our soil, but are we safer? The Pendragon does not think so. This is not the fault of Bush or Ashcroft or Condoleezza Rice, who are some of the few who actually are fighting terrorism; this is the fault of our short-term memory loss. Americans have lost sight of what happened that day five years ago, have forgotten the terror it inspired. If another attack is forthcoming, it will be because of the outcry of the Must-Carry-Gatorade-On-Board-A-Plane crowd and not because of the aggressive strategies of the Republican leadership. A nation must have will to fight and win a war and it remains to be seen if America has it. We did once, but fifty years of sissy liberalism has taken its toll. I can only pray that we return soon to the determination to stand for freedom and civilization in a world gone terribly wrong.