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For those who remember the crisp fall morning of Sept. 11, 2001, how by 10:03 a.m. the day turned to Hell, and how we watched the brutal, televised murders of 2,977 people, the atrocities are seared into our memories.   

A well-funded, wickedly trained team of 19 savage Islamic terrorists brought a fight to our soil that Americans did not know we were involved in.  

In New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, people of a certain age recall the acrid taste in the air and the strange haze from the thick cloud of fine dust that hung over the city for days after the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers were toppled.  

Crossings in and out of New York City were closed. Children wondered when their parents would come home. Some never did.  

In New Jersey, a long line of people snaked around the parking lot at a Red Cross and waited hours to donate blood, only to learn there were fewer injuries than blood donors. Victims either escaped from the Twin Towers or died.

Traffic was light on Sept. 12, but those who commuted to work noticed many drivers had put the stars and stripes on their vehicles. The American flag was suddenly flying everywhere, and the sight of it evoked strong emotions, even tears. Americans collectively experienced shocking trauma. Aside from cleaning up the body-strewn debris and mourn, there was not much we could do or say in the face of such evil. Our beautiful flag said it all.

Never forget, we said. But like all scars, it has faded. It’s been 23 years. Not a milestone anniversary. There won’t be as many mentions of it in the news this year.

Once again, we are in a battle too many Americans do not know we are involved in. Our culture has changed as Americans turn away from God.

We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic according to a report released last year by the surgeon general. It said that in 1999, 70 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church. In 2020, only 47 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque. 

The victims of Sept. 11, 2001, would not recognize America today. They died before Facebook was invented; before everyone had a smartphone in his pocket; before legalized same-sex marriages; and before attempts to normalize children taking life-altering hormones in fruitless attempts to change their unchangeable gender.

They missed Covid; the summer of riots; the rise of lawless homeless encampments; and the Department of Justice prosecuting and imprisoning people for the constitutionally protected activities of assembling and speaking their mind.

Today’s 30-year-olds were seven when the terrorists struck. They have minimal recollection of Sept. 11. It is doubtful they recall how some countries around the world reached out to the United States in solidarity, while people in other countries celebrated the attack.

Today’s college students have no memory of Sept. 11 at all. If they did, they wouldn’t join with pro-Hamas campus agitators chanting “from the river to the sea,” which is a cloaked way of saying, wipe Israel and the Jewish people off the map. The atrocities of Oct. 7 were brought to Israel by the same evil that set the terror of Sept. 11 in motion.  

By now, we should have clarity about how to respond to evil. But those who wish to lead us don’t have clarity on how many genders exist, let alone how to articulate a specific plan for international diplomacy.  

Imagine how Kamala Harris, who can’t give a straight answer about Israel, and who has yet to express remorse for U.S. military deaths from the botched Afghanistan exit, would navigate a Sept. 11 on her watch.

In an iconic moment in George W. Bush’s presidency, he stood at Ground Zero in New York City and gave a speech to recovery workers with a bullhorn.

“We can’t hear you!” Someone from the crowd shouted. Without missing a beat Bush responded: “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. … And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” The crowd cheered in unity.

What would happen if Harris had that bullhorn?

We know from her behavior as vice president and as a presidential candidate that Harris does not show up, does not answer questions, does not offer useful context. She is light on authenticity, unable to communicate coherently without situational control and a speech writer, and unwilling to connect at all with people outside her political sphere.

The battle America now faces is one of further, possibly permanent, cultural change.

The advent of artificial intelligence, mandatory electric cars, and a borderless society will make Americans lonelier, continue the destabilization of the nation, and continue our slide into socialism — which we will be unlikely to escape in our lifetimes.

Will we one day mark time as before and after the 2024 election the way we have with Sept. 11?

A powerful force is still at work: evil. Evil always wants to destroy liberty. It will take the might of every righteous person to stop it.   

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.