Where were you when you first heard about the unprovoked attack on this country?

Since 09-12-06

THE KSFO LISTENER ADVISORY COUNCIL E-LETTER

Dear James:

Hello and welcome to the KSFO Listener Advisory Council E-Letter, for September, 2006. This is a promotional E-Letter from Hot Talk 560 KSFO, 900 Front Street, San Francisco, CA 94111.

AND NOW A WORD FROM...
Each month in this space, a KSFO Radio on-air host will write a few words about what is happening with them and on their program.

This month we asked "Babe in the Bunker", Barbara Simpson, to write the preface to KSFO Radio's September 2006 Listener E-Letter:

DEAR KSFO LISTENER,

Where were you when you first heard about the unprovoked attack on this country? What were your first thoughts? What did those images on the television screen mean to you? What did you think when you saw people jumping from those skyscrapers?

Those moments will stay in memory with as much impact as the stark images from the attack on Pearl Harbor. The video and still photographs of the smoking twin towers are as dramatic as any in history. They had a powerful impact on us.

Immediately after the attacks - immediately after the collapse of the towers, the plane into the Pentagon and the crash in the Pennsylvania field, our country was filled with waves of patriotism. There were flags everywhere, including on cars and trucks. People wore lapel pins of flags and red, white and blue. People talked about love of country and a desire to defend ourselves from the enemy that attacked us and killed more than 3,000 innocent civilians - men, women and children.

We were shocked, angry, and united. That was then; what about now? A lot has changed. There is Afghanistan and Iraq. There was Madrid and London. There's Al Qaida, and Hamas and Hezbollah and a whole alphabet-soup of terrorist organizations we'd never heard of and never thought we'd ever need to know about. There are other images in our memories, too. The faces of men like Daniel Pearl and so many others. There are the scenes of beheadings, the sounds of the killings and the screams of the victims. There are news videos of people cheering the senseless brutality and swearing to continue it. We've heard the words of many of those people and their leaders promising to convert us or kill us; promising to rid the world of the infidel.

I'm not sure we believe them. I'm not certain we realize that when they say they'll kill the infidel, they mean us . . . not just our military and our politicians; they also mean our families and our children. I'm not certain we fully realize that the same brutality shown to those who were beheaded is intended for us.

The people who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks had a purpose, which has not diminished in the five years since; they intend to kill us and to end Western life as we know it.

It's politically incorrect to say things like that today, and that's most unfortunate. The terrorists take advantage of our naiveté. Unfortunately, that will be the end of us unless we look back at 9/ll and recapture the unity of patriotism of that terrible day. Without it, it's just a matter of time. With it, the excellence of America will be victorious and the free world will have a future.

Remember the Alamo. Remember the Maine. Remember Pearl Harbor. Remember 9/11.

Never, ever forget. God Bless America.

- Barbara Simpson