Those are the basic facts. The attack on America that day caught the Nation by surprise. We were unprepared – actually even complacent – thinking it could never happen on our turf. Needless to say, it woke us all up.

Ten years later, we continue to make a big deal on the anniversary of that horrible day. Why?!? – I am not sure. Signs, bumper stickers, coins, T-shirts, and other items proclaim: “We Will Never Forget”. How appropriate! We should never forget and in reality, I am not sure if anyone in America over the age of 5 could ever forget what happened that day. We do not need annual reminders to keep it fresh in our minds. It is NOT something to celebrate – and each year we commemorate the day with highly visible events around the country (especially in DC and NY) – and in essence, we continue to give press and publicity to Al Qaeda and other would-be terrorists.

In addition, we continue to hail all of the victims of that tragic day as heroes. I strongly disagree! Those 2977 people, including the 55 military personnel, were ALL victims. However, among the victims, were a few heroes. The 411 emergency workers that died (firefighters and policemen) were indeed heroes! They were fighting to rescue/save others. In addition, the 40 passengers aboard United Flight 93 were all heroes – they fought against the hijackers and prevented another direct hit on a site in Washington – although they knew they were all going to die. Therefore, aside from those 451 heroes, the others were just victims. They were doing their jobs (in offices) or traveling unsuspectingly, and became victims against their will; much like the 10 victims of the DC Snipers in 2002 (John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo). None of those victims were hailed as heroes – no memorials in their honor – no annual observances. I am not suggesting that the memorials are not worthy but we tend to overdo it. It’s as if the country feels guilty for being unprepared so we try to appease everyone by making it a big deal and hailing the victims as special heroes. On Saturday, 9/10/11, a Flight 93 National Memorial will be dedicated and that one is well-deserved in honor of those victims and heroes. However, the point here is that each year since the attacks, we remind the surviving members of the victims’ families of what happened. We force them (and the rest of us) to re-live the events of that fateful day. There were some former colleagues of mine that I respected and cared about who were killed on 9/11. It is sad indeed, but even they were just innocent victims. We all remember – we will always remember – but we don’t need the constant commemorations to keep 9/11/01 alive. This is one writer’s position. It won’t change anything. On 9/11/11, the planned events will go on – and again next year, and the year afterwards, and so on. Li and I will go about business as usual – attending the Redskins’ opening game (against the Giants – no coincidence here). Perhaps someday, we can all just stop talking about 9/11 each year and leave it for the history books.

That’s MY SIDE. Thanks for reading and sharing. I welcome your feedback.

We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us. Obama’s steady supporters will be proved right. Obama’s critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.

The Context of the Obama Presidency: Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe, the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any president faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition – from both the right and left.

As the President’s poll numbers have fallen so has his support from some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty website’s and commentators that were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election. The left’s lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling “prophecy”– snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn’t have anything to do with it!

Here is what Obama faced when he took office– none of which was his fault:
# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries
# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral
# The worst economic crisis since the depression
# America’s standing in the world at the lowest point in history
# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war
# A health care system in free fall
# An educational system in free fall
# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans has done nothing)
# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left
# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration.
And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President’s desk!

“Help” from the Right?
What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists — that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office — do to “help” our new president (and our country) succeed? They claimed that he wasn’t a real American, didn’t have an American birth certificate, wasn’t born here, was secretly a Muslim, was white-hating “racist”, was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ, (!) and was a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted “death panels” to kill the elderly! They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so-subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8. They organized “tea parties” to sound off against imagined insults and all government in general and gathered to howl at the moon. They were led by insurance industry lobbyists and deranged (but well financed) “commentators” from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh. The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: “No!” In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far right, combined with the educated but obtuse neoconservative war mongers, religious right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent “bishops”, frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!

“Help” from the Left?
What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he’d inherited from the worst president in modern history! Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President’s economic policies had “failed” before the President even instituted them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minutes of the President taking office, they’d been “betrayed”! (Never mind that Obama’s vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other president’s has been. Never mind that he signed a new hate crimes law!) Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how “disappointed” they were that they’d not all immediately been translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the “change”? Contrary to their expectations they were still mere mortals! And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond. “Governing”?! What the hell does that word, uh, like mean?”
The President’s critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then of course there were the white, snide know-it- all commentators/talking heads who just couldn’t imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren’t as smart as they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their president. He hadn’t consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong! The Obama critics’ ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas-say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or to be exact by the American idiot nation that voted Bush into office. Twice!

Meanwhile back in the reality-based community – in just 12 short months — President Obama:
#Continued to draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Restored America ‘s image around the globe – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Banned torture of American prisoners – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Stopped the free fall of the American economy – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Stood up for educational reform – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Won a Nobel peace prize – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience
(But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Stopped the free fall of job losses – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the “blood of tyrants” needing to “water the tree of liberty”. – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)
#Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly – (But that wasn’t good enough for his critics)

Other than those “disappointing” accomplishments — IN ONE YEAR — President Obama “failed”! Other than that he didn’t “live up to expectations”!

Who actually has failed… …are the Americans that can’t see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned “news” into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.

Here’s the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty “supporters” or hate-filled Republican detractors!
The Future Looks Good!

After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts — with a canny and calculating eye to the possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was/is falling!!!!!
Just because we didn’t get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.
(By Frank Schaefer)

From H.S. – Washington, DC: I am at a loss for words regarding the behavior of Congress and specifically the Republicans in the House. I ‘am’ a registered Republican but I must admit that I am embarrassed that my elected leaders are playing games with America’s financial standing. At one point, I thought it was just a matter of differences in opinion (which you pointed out is President Obama’s view). However, as this stalemate has drawn out and it’s getting closer and closer to the deadline for action, I am more convinced that Republicans are determined to not negotiate with this President and they truly want to embarrass him regardless of the consequences to the country. While I hate to agree with you, I now believe this is racially motivated and as you said, I do not believe Congress (regardless of which party is in control) would be still stalling over raising the debt ceiling if any other person (other than a Black man) was President. I am a proud card-carrying Republican but right now, I am ashamed of the actions of my party and how petty they have become.

MY SIDE: I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for you to pen those words. I respect you for seeing more than one side. Far too often we are too deeply rooted in our own US versus THEM mentality that we refuse to see or believe anything contrary to what our base believes. Thanks for sharing.

L.E. from Montgomery County, MD: Based on my income level, I am one of those people that President Obama wants to raise taxes on so I am strongly opposed to his plan for balancing the budget. There has to be another way to do it than placing more tax burden on those of us that have worked hard to reach the level where we are in the top 5% of the wage earners. It seems that the President wants to punish people like me for being successful.

MY SIDE: I strongly disagree. While my household is also in that top 5% and our taxes will go up, I do not base my support for a proposal solely on how it affects me personally. I tend to look at the bigger picture and how it affects the country. President Obama is also in that category – so are most of the members of Congress. Based on the problems facing our Nation, there must be some hard choices and some sacrifices. I cannot, in good conscious, expect people in low income brackets to pay more; nor would I expect to start cutting valuable benefits that so many senior citizens depend on just to survive. From whom much is given, much is expected. It’s not punishment – it’s a way to do your part in ensuring the long term health of our country’s financial system.

M.J. from East Orange, NJ: If I recall from some earlier messages you posted, you are not a fan of Sarah Palin. Why? She is very outgoing, articulate, good-looking, and she is down-to-earth and would make a good President – someone that would really be “for the people”.

MY SIDE: I am not sure whether to take your email seriously or if you are only teasing. Either way, I will respond as if you are serious. For starters, if you do believe what you wrote, you are a certifiably dangerous person. I am outgoing, articulate, good-looking, and down-to-earth (okay – that part may be a stretch but…) and yet, I don’t see anyone touting me for President of the United States. Sarah Palin is a good American. She loves her country and I truly believe she is sincere. The problem is, she’s an unqualified idiot. She couldn’t handle the pressure of running the state of Alaska so she resigned in mid-term – yet I am supposed to trust her to run the country? When things get hot, what will she do – quit? I cannot even begin to imagine her having to face the many pressures and issues that President Obama has had to deal with the past 2 years. Sarah, in my opinion, would have wilted under pressure long ago. There was an article in the USATODAY a couple of weeks ago based solely on Sarah Palin. While I don’t recall everything about the article, I do remember that it was not very flattering about her or her avid supporters. The article talked about how her supporters feeds feverish responses on one side and embarrassing overreaction on the other. In a nutshell, the article suggested that Sarah’s popularity is based more on her good looks than anything else. Seriously?!? Well bring on Eva Longoria, J’Lo, Cameron Diaz, and Halle Berry - take your pick! Either one would make a great President if looks are what matters. Eva has my vote. I volunteer to be her campaign manager – for free – (only kidding Li – wink wink). Anyway – back to Sarah (what a drop-off) – she is okay as long as she doesn’t open her mouth. She is not very well-informed and certainly not very intelligent (and quite frankly, I don’t think she’s that good-looking either). Please tell me why she should be President. Let’s all snap back to reality and focus our attention to legitimate candidates. After all the smoke dies down, Sarah Palin will be reduced to just another temporary distraction.

A.D. from Canton, OH: I read your comments regarding smokers with interest. I am a smoker and I do not consider myself as rude and inconsiderate. I never smoke inside restaurants or in crowds even outside. When I am out with friends, some of whom do not smoke, I walk far away from them when I feel the urge to light up. In short, not all smokers are as inconsiderate as the person you described. As for the health issue, I am aware that I will probably get cancer and die. Yet, my attitude is that no one lives forever and smoking is something I enjoy so I accept the risks.

MY SIDE: Wow! I am almost speechless. Rarely do you meet someone that cares so little about life that they openly admit that they accept the risks of death. It’s sad that life has dealt you such a blow that you feel you have nothing worth living for. I can only assume (and hope) that you don’t have a spouse and children. At any rate, thank you for being considerate and not trying to take others with you to your death chamber.

We seriously have our priorities screwed up. This writer does not, in any shape, form or fashion, promote or agree with illegal drug use – and that includes steroids. However, illegal drug users are harming and damaging their own bodies and adversely affecting their own health. Eventually, they may be successful in killing themselves. Yet, it’s their own choice so sending people to jail for harming themselves is a waste of taxpayer money. We need to focus on the real criminals – those that are potential threats to society.

While on this subject of self-harm, you have to be amused at the new warnings on cigarette packets that will show up next year. They are very graphic and send a clear message that smoking kills. Does anyone truly believe this will suddenly make a difference? Smokers already know that tobacco kills! The warnings have been out there for many years – and the real evidence is the high number of family members, friends, co-workers who have cancer and many who have died as a result of it – all from smoking tobacco. Yet, many continue to do it because they think it will never happen to them (or maybe they just don’t care). For those that don’t care, they should just find a quicker end to life and get it over with. Why make your friends and family suffer too? For this writer, it’s a very sensitive subject because of the many people near and dear to me that has passed on – too early – as a result of smoking; and the many that remain who continue to smoke – just ignoring the dangers. The idea of “it’s too hard to quit” is a bunch of shigidy! Life is hard – but we do the things that are important to us. Li and I went out to see the fireworks on the 4th – in Fairfax. We had a reserved table in a nice spot; had drinks, dinner, and a perfect view of the fireworks. Four other guests went with us plus our twins. Then, unexpectedly, some selfish, inconsiderate excuse for a human lit up a cigarette at the table next to us – exposing our children (and others) to second-hand smoke. Despite our comments and nasty stares, he continued to puff on it and repeated the same a few other times during the course of the night. It would have been easy him to get up from his table and walk a few steps away to smoke (as the majority of the smokers in the crowd did) but he chose to sit there – obviously hoping to slowly kill others as he is killing himself. Many others around us shared our thought process of wanting to turn a hose on him and douse him completely. Yet, we refrained – choosing to exercise more class and humanity than he did. After all, stooping to his level would have made us no better than him – which is the prevailing attitude when encountering ignorant people. Moreover, the American Way is that you must respect the rights of others to do as they choose regardless of how offensive it is.

That’s MY SIDE. Thanks for reading and sharing. Comments welcomed!!

Let’s be clear. This commentary is NOT about defending President Obama or his policies; far from it. Rather, it’s about Congress behaving badly and refusing to support this President even at the expense of the American people and at the risk of America’s financial standing in the world. They (Congress) have refused to negotiate on the federal budget. We all remember the repeated interim spending measures (Continuing Resolutions) at the beginning of this fiscal year just to keep the Government running and they finally passed a bill with only a few months left in the fiscal year. Now instead of immediately turning their attention to a new budget for the fiscal year that begins October 1st, Congress is busy using stall tactics, negative talk, and finger-pointing. However, despite all of this, the most pressing issue is that of raising the debt ceiling. Failure to act before the end of July will result in the United States defaulting on its debt. This will create a major financial disaster for this country and cost all of us dearly. Under no circumstances should we be in this position this late in the game. Congress should have acted on this long ago and not keep threatening to allow a default. They think this will truly embarrass the President (since the U.S. has never defaulted on its debt) and would surely mean he will not get re-elected. This is particularly true if they stall long enough where the financial markets get nervous and start reacting negatively, even if Congress ultimately passes a last-minute deal to avoid actual default. They know (or at least hope) the political damage would have been done. It is unbelievable how politicians continue to make decisions (or lack thereof) based on elections or their own personal/political careers. We place them in office to work together and make the hard decisions that are in the best interests of the country – not those in the best interests of select groups or parties. One has to wonder: if the exact same circumstances existed under President Bush (or any other President), would Congress be playing this stall game or would they have already made the right decision to raise the debt ceiling? Really – do we have to wonder about this?
Another example was the recent vote in the House regarding America’s involvement in the crisis in Libya. Again, this was just another attempt to embarrass this President. President Bush had us invade Iraq under false pretenses (after insisting there were weapons of mass destruction). Yet, Congress supported him and after all this time, we are still trying to recover from that long war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. Regardless of why we went to war, the reality is, we (as Americans) support the effort, finish the mission, and get our troops out. Instead, Congress is repeatedly trying to strip more “power” from this President. One writer worded it best when he suggested: “Congress is sending a clear message that this is too much power for a Black man to have and they need to control him at all costs”. While it sounds a little funny on one hand and too harsh on the other, yet, there is a measure of truth in it. We can “say” all we want about how the country has moved forward in the area of race relations, but when you look closely at the wide range of things this President has had to face, you cannot help but conclude that racism is a factor in some actions by Congress, many actions and remarks by Americans as a whole, and in the repeated acts of disrespect by some in the media (such as the name calling that continues to make headlines). This is, without question, the nastiest this country has been in recent memory. Although President Obama suggests it is just about Americans and the different parties expressing differences in opinions, we all know he is just being politically correct. He would love to “believe” that’s all it is but even the President knows it’s deeper than that. Americans have always disagreed on politics but without the degree of ugliness that we see now. We should be banding together to solve the debt crisis, improve the economy, tackle health care, ensure a smooth transition from involvement in Afghanistan, and resolution of the many other issues facing our Nation. But instead, we are bogged down in petty politics and racial hatred. Some are directly involved in this mess; some promote it; some refuse to admit that it’s true; and some are just plain blind to it. Others live it every day and can see clearly. For this writer, in an interracial marriage and the father of bi-racial twins, racism is obvious every day – and never more evident than having to face it from those supposedly close to you: family!! It goes to prove, that ignorance exists not only on Capitol Hill, but also in the homes, hearts, and heads of people we know up close and personal.

Martin Luther King’s dream, no matter how much progress we’ve made during the past 40+ years, has not yet been realized. We keep getting close but the every time we think we are about to reach the mountaintop, someone adds another rock. But we keep on climbing, keep on believing, that the day will come when ignorance and stupidity will be overcome. Keep hope alive.

Everyone selected Boston and Chicago to play for the Eastern Conference Championship in the NBA. The Miami Heat has now played and beaten both of those teams; and in the case of Miami versus Chicago, the Heat lost the first game in Chicago then won 4 in a row (2 of them in Chicago). Chicago had the NBA’s Player of the Year (Derrick Rose), the coach of the year, and the best record in basketball – but it was not enough against Miami’s big 3. Lebron James proved that he IS the NBA’s “best player” (regardless of who the sports writers gave the award to this year). Now, the NBA finals are set: Miami versus Dallas – a repeat of the 2006 finals in which Miami won. Dallas is pumped and primed to give Miami a beat-down in pay back for that 2006 loss. It will make for a great story line and good theater. However, expect to see Miami cutting down the nets after 6 games. Take that all the “haters”.

I’ve gone on record before as not a big fan of hockey. However, I “am” a fan of the Washington Capitals. For three years in a row, they have entered the playoffs with the best record and now, for three years in a row, they have made an early exit from the playoffs (failing to advance past the 2d round). Seriously, it’s getting harder for me to care. Maybe next season they should barely make the playoffs (get in as the 8th seed) and maybe then they can play spoiler and make it through to the finals. I am an avid sports fan but I admit I don’t know a lot about hockey. However, it’s hard to understand how a team can be consistently great during the regular season and crash and burn in the playoffs every year. In the NBA, it gets coaches fired (see Mike Brown’s resume…). Still, I believe the bigger responsibility in the playoffs (for any sport) rests with the players stepping up and making plays. Hockey is no different. It’s time for the Capital’s Alexander the “great” to play great in the playoffs – next year.

There is a very real possibility that the NFL season may not happen this year. Professional football is my absolute favorite sport. I cannot imagine a season without football. However, I am firmly behind the “owners” on this one and I don’t think they should cave in. NFL players are overpaid as it is and they have the nerve to demand a greater share of the revenue! Really! The owners ‘own’ the teams and they make all the investments and pay the bills. The players invest nothing! They just show up to play and collect huge paychecks – and many of them don’t play very inspired. Look at Albert Haynesworth – the Washington Redskins’ $100 million man who played very little the past two years and contributed absolutely nothing of significance. This is an extreme case but there are plenty of players who show up to collect a check without contributing much. They know they are under contract so they are safe and their motivation is not that great. In short, let them all sit out a year with no pay. It won’t affect some but there are a large number of players who actually need the paychecks. Maybe they should get rid of that sham of a Director of the Player’s Association (DeMaurice Smith) who walks around with an arrogant attitude like he is the big man on campus. He needs a big slice of humble pie and I hope the courts and the owners feed it to him.

That’s MY SIDE.

That’s MY SIDE.