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On this date 20 years ago

by Andrew Tuttle
09/12/21
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Twenty years ago, on September 12, 2001, it was an unprecedented time in United States history.

We were united.

On this date, 20 years ago Republicans and Democrats ceased to exist.

President George Bush was on his way to a 92 percent approval rating. I wonder what it’s like to be so loved and then so shortly thereafter have a play produced depicting your assassination. Congress, if you forget, fully backed this man. If at least for a time. Before they forgot yesterday.

Today, he’s apparently the root cause of all that ills us, eventually blossomed by Donald Trump.

God wasn’t a three letter word and less than 24 hours had passed since elected members of congress joined together and sang “God Bless America.” Wow, can you believe it?

Jesus wasn’t a five letter word either. I should know. Twenty years ago, I was a reporter. An exciting time to be in the industry, I’ll admit. I went to a church to cover a 9/11 service. It was packed. Standing Room Only.

On this date 20 years ago, no one would dare take a knee during the National Anthem or question why some place their hands over their hearts. (Something I recently heard.)

There was no such thing as a Hyphenated-American. On this date, 20 years ago we were all Americans and we were all attacked the day before. People with a darker tone to their skin helped those with a much lighter tone and vice versa. Nobody cared what “race” you were. We were all human and we were all in it together.

On this date 20 years ago race baiters ceased to exist.

American flags popped up outside of houses all over the United States today – if it was 20 years ago. People were proud of this country. Despite the past sins from people who were born and died long before any of us were conceived, the United States of America represented the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family.

Today, 20 years later, headlines declare America remains systemically racist, despite the twice election of a black man as president, and whites have a hereditary problem in their DNA making them naturally oppressive. I wonder sometimes if a person passing me on the streets will try and knock me out with one punch just because they can without consequence. Love was in the air 20 years ago. Today, hatred rules and division even between family members keep one another from conversing.

The small things mattered, and didn’t matter, 20 years ago. What bothered us seemed so trivial. I spoke with a police captain for a story I was writing. He said the “nuisance” calls, you know, neighbors annoyed with one another, petty crimes, stuff like that, had dropped ever since the planes crashed into the towers. That which gave us comfort, gave us a bit of hope, allowed us to persevere. Entitlement Nation remained in the womb.

FOX News, CNN and other media outlets seemed to actually report the same news. That was 20 years ago.

If 20 years ago yesterday had not happened, Nov. 5, 2009 would have been considered this nation’s first terrorist attack on home soil. Eleven years ago today we’d all be talking about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2012 that killed four Americans.

I’m guessing you have no idea what happened on those dates.

On this day 20 years ago, political correctness and cancel culture ceased to exist. So did a hate group, born from a lie, with political aspirations to abolish the nuclear family, increase abortion, defund the police and implement Marxism. This same group, shamelessly responsible for leading and promoting more than 600 destructive riots in 2020.

On this date 20 years ago, the world looked to America not only for direction but to see what to do next. What was she going to do after a punch to the face? War was initiated. All of us wanted revenge. The president announced two days later atop a pile of debris the whole world would soon hear us. Everyone, it seemed, cheered. Especially those who called themselves Americans.

Twenty years later, the President of Russia makes fun of us. The nation of China challenges us. We don’t even know how to keep the peace anymore, it seems. An apparent junior varsity terrorist organization once mocked us and now, 20 years later, we presently endure one of the most embarrassing events in our nation’s history that fully negated the country’s eventual response to those terrorist attacks.

Would the president, 20 years ago today, dictate to citizens they must accept into their body a “vaccine” for a disease with a 99.98 percent survival rate for the majority of people, or risk losing their jobs? The same president who once said, “don’t trust the vaccine” and a vaccine the current vice-president once refused to take because it was the former president’s vaccine. Hypocrisy was shunned 20 years ago today. Today? Most have no problem with it or conveniently forget.

Do you remember the 13 lives lost nearly 20 days ago?

Would the residents of this country stand for a flood of illegal immigrants pouring across an unsecure southern border 20 years ago today? Would the residents of this country really care if a privately-owned business refused to bake a cake for someone? Would a baker really refuse to bake a cake in the first place? Would police departments around the country face a shortage of officers because no one wanted them. Would lawlessness rule the streets of nearly every major city in America in an unprecedented crime wave?

Would our favorite sport dive into the already divisive world of politics preventing any escape from all the negative headlines 20 years ago on this date? Actually, watching millionaires you don’t even know, play professional sports, was an afterthought 20 years ago on this date.

All we cared about 20 years ago on this date was survival. Our families. Safety. Our way of life we, and those before us, had worked so painfully to possess had been violently disturbed.

On Wednesday morning Sept. 12, 2001, the words of John F. Kennedy hit home more than any other day in our history. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

Today, very few would agree with that statement.

On this date 20 years ago…it was a great day to be an American.