The Main Course is Missing

Finished! Protest over in Iran. It was only a minor annoyance - soon to be forgotten. Lesson learned; duly noted: Don't mess with the puppet master.

I remember, one fine morning in September. I remember because I was out on the road - working. My crew and I watched the smoke rising over Lower Manhattan (from the Jersey side). At one of our stops, the TV was on. There were people gathered around it - watching intently. The president was explaining that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center towers. I felt a strange new sensation. By the time we arrived at our next stop my hands were shaking. One of my co-workers was sobbing openly. We all felt something had changed – something that could not be put back to how it had been.

We continued the route. Cell phone calls kept us informed. Within hours we knew the names of the skyjackers. It never occurred to us to wonder who might have been in on it from the inside, though that would become an issue in the coming months; years. How could we trust the words of a man who had (we were told) effectively stolen an election, after all?

Soon after, 9/11 was forgotten. Our focus became scattered; diverted by other, more immediate concerns. War, torture, body bags, political gamesmanship and conflicting opinions about how to go about rebuilding that which had been broken were expertly served in an unbroken stream of dolled up platters. Nobody noticed that the main course was missing. 9/11 never happened, or so it seemed. WE had been attacked on our own soil and almost 3000 people died, but that part of it was no longer to be mentioned. Only subsequent events deserved obsessive repetition and magnification in the press. Lacking the context of 9/11, none of these pieces fit satisfactorily, giving rise to wild speculation and doubt, all of which the media exploited to render an administration clumsy and ultimately ineffective.

Then, just before last November’s presidential election, came whatever it was that gave rise to TARP – another, this time (perhaps) more subtle, attack on our financial systems. It is never talked about and has never been investigated. Instead, we are told, it was capitalism that had failed (on its own). I, for one, still want to know how and why? The why is pretty obvious: Obama was elected in November. The how remains a mystery. (I suspect that knowing how would lead to who.) Politicians and the media consistently skip over this part of the story – just like 9/11 has now been effectively relegated to a mere footnote.

Obama was elected president. Again, so much about the man was unknown to us when we pulled the levers in good faith. So much was covered up; glossed over. Only now are we are beginning to see the trends.

Some say, take your pick: Either Health Care Reform or Cap and Trade will spell the end of America as we have known her. Both are coming up for a vote in our rubber stamp congress. Immigration and Tax Reform also loom large on Obama’s radical Marxist agenda. We have no reason to assume that any of this will bode well for us. I say, the die was cast way back on 9/11/’01. That’s when the ball started rolling in earnest.

Protest over in Iran! The government controls the narrative. Tienanmen Square (’89): The government controls the narrative. Obama assumes the office of President (’09). We still don’t have a clue just who this guy is. The government controls the narrative.

‘It can’t happen here’, we try to reassure ourselves right after saying our prayers and pulling the covers up. Outside the wind is howling and the rain splashes loudly against the windows. There’s also a branch that’s rubbing up against the eaves. We inhale sharply as we look forward to another sleepless night.