You see, I speak with experience, having been forced to join the ranks of the widowed some years back. Those of us left behind tend to cling to our loved one's last gifts, last words -- pretty much last anything. As I write, I am wearing an old brown Ann Taylor sweater, size "smaller than it used to be." It's the last gift my husband gave me. His last piece of advice before taking his last breath? "Susan, take a deep breath...just inhale." I feel as if I've been inhaling ever since. Over time, this radical event helped to mold me into a better version of myself, or so I've been told. However, this is not about me.
A handful of Americans learned a similar lesson as well, on what began as a normal Tuesday morning in September of 2001, when they learned the airplanes they boarded would not reach their planned destination, but would instead rocket them to an unplanned and final one. Most had no idea the goodbyes they shared with loved ones that morning would be their last. Nor did the rest of us realize the savage acts of a malevolent few would change our lives forever.
In an instant, American patriotism seemed to be resurrected from Ground Zero's ashes when people of all stripes laid aside their shallow biases to focus on things that really mattered, to wit, our unity as "one nation under God."
But that was then. Watching the Democratic National Convention last week, I found myself asking the question: How did we go from two mile-long lines to donate blood at Ground Zero to Democrats losing their minds over the insertion of the word "God" in the party's platform? Baby steps, I suppose.
Obviously, not all change is positive. The "change" that President Obama and now former President Bill Clinton espouse should give all freedom-loving Americans reason for pause. In case you are not quite sure what Obama's definition of change is, President Clinton spells it out in a new campaign advertisement. The part where Clinton says, "President Obama has a plan to rebuild America from the ground-up" tells us everything we need to know about what an Obama second term would entail.
You see, one cannot build something from the "ground-up" unless there is a "ground zero" to start with. Look back over the past four years of the Obama presidency, and you will see the handiwork of a Progressive wrecking ball which has wrought havoc on the very essence of much of which makes this country great.
Writing about change, C.S. Lewis once penned the words, "And what matters is the nature of the change in itself, not how we feel while it is happening." Unplanned events leave us with little choice except to decide whether we will wither in its wake...or flourish. However, some things we can control, specifically Obama's plans for "change," wherein both "the nature of the change" and its process stinketh to the core.