On Hold Messaging

Today is 11 September 2012.  I received an e-mail from a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.  It was pretty powerful.  In edited form: "Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe. . . . They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. . . .The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you.  And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason - - it is his reason, and not ours."  This is from "Civilization and its Enemies" by Lee Harris.  Food for thought for this day of remembrance.