As we put this edition of The Lincoln County News to bed this week, it is literally 12 years to the day; at the time of this writing, almost to the hour, of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday, also a day for preparing the paper for publication. Twelve years ago as the world was changing outside our window, we were at work putting together news of bean suppers, grange meetings, municipal meetings and other events.
Today, even as our day-to-day focus has moved on, Sept. 11 casts a long shadow over us. We suspect it will remain the driving force on American domestic and foreign policy for generations to come.
The specter of dying in a terrorist attack has prompted millions of law abiding citizens to stand aside, allowing the bureaucrats and private contractors that do the federal government’s business, to siphon off billions of tax dollars for the sole purpose of making us feel safer while at the same trampling, erasing, or ignoring the very freedoms this country was founded on.
It is said that those making history are usually unaware of what they are doing at the time. That is likely true. At the time they were doing it, the men storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day were probably more concerned about making it out alive than they were proud of being involved in the largest amphibious invasion in history.
Other times, you know history when you see it. September 11 was one of those days. Like a black hole of memory, it bends and warps everything around it.
