A quarter century ago, the United States was shaken to its core as terrorists hijacked passenger planes, turned them into missiles and attacked what they considered the ultimate symbols of United States.
Eleven minutes after nine on that 9/11 morning, the World Trade Center in New York City was engulfed in a hellishly hot fire, fueled by jet fuel and hatred. The Pentagon in Washington was in flames, and a group of heroic passengers, rather than allowing their hijacked jet to become a fourth projectile, rushed the cockpit forcing a crash in an empty field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our world was changed. Unfortunately, not for the better.
Twenty-five years later, despite the solemn commemorative services and words of unity being delivered this morning, we may be more divided as a country that any time since the 1860s.
And the 9/11 casualty count continues to rise. There were 2,977 initial victims at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and that field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania. But more than 9,000 people involved in the rescue efforts and subsequent cleanup at those sites have died. More than 154,000 people have entered the World Trade Center Health Program. Last year, 10,000 names were added. After working or living in or around the toxic blend of poisons the attacks left behind, the residents of that part of NYC and the rescue/recovery/reclamation workers have come down with a variety of maladies that were tied directly to the World Trade Center aftermath.
As the human costs keep rising, the positive affects of the attack and the heroism displayed in the aftermath seem to have faded from our collective consciousness.
Many of the same politicians who gathered on the steps of the United States Capitol to show unity are still in Washington, but their partisanship promises have evaporated.
Today, their words of unity from twenty five years ago sound as ridiculous as a lizard bragging about being descended from dinosaurs.
Talk, at least in Washington, has always been cheap. But the expense tied to their cheap talk and empty promises is enormous. Like the victims list from 9/11, it keeps growing.
We’re mired in a worsening economy, tied inarguably to the complete fiscal irresponsibility shown by our “leaders.” The national debt is unsustainable, and our “leaders” continue to spend with complete disregard for the fact that no one, individual or nation, can outrun its debt forever.
If you disagree, take a stroll down the grocery aisles and watch your bank balances evaporate. Better yet, pull up to the gas pump where you fueled your ride last week and check the cost of fuel today.
I’ve traveled in California and Washington and lived in the Northeast. So, I’m totally aware that costs are different depending on the political and geographic climate. If you’re in those places, costs are higher. So, too, are mandated minimum wages, taxes and housing.
But I live in Tennessee, a conservative state (outside Nashville, anyway) with no state income tax, reasonable property taxes and an economy that’s doing well, not hemorrhaging jobs and people.
Living here is more reasonably priced than either coast, explaining the influx of displaced Californians and New Yorkers who have decided the costs of living there no longer justify the wear and tear on both the wallet and the soul.
Unfortunately, they didn’t leave their political or societal opinions behind, so we’re dealing with the inevitable culture clash. Hopefully, they’ll come around to the fact that the blue collar values in the red states are why life’s easier on the mind, psyche and finances.
Last Friday, I pulled into a gas station to fill up before driving from Knoxville to Murfreesboro. For a minute, I thought I was back in New York or California. Fuel had jumped 42 cents per gallon. If I’d filled up the day before, I would have paid six dollars less.
After filling up, I went inside for a coffee. While I was inside, prices jumped another four cents per gallon.
Prices have moderated a bit, but the happenings in the Strait of Hormuz has crude oil prices rising. The accepted rule-of-thumb in the oil business is that every $10 in crude barrel pricing adds 25 cents to the price per gallon at the pump.
The cost to all of us isn’t just at the pump. Everything shipped (almost everything) will cost more - due to transport costs. If a product requires a petroleum ingredient, that will increase more, too.
At the $6.24/gallon price I saw, a 240 gallon fill-up would cost slightly less than $1,500. Based on 6.5-7.5 MPG of trucks, we’re talking about a 1,680 mile range. That puts fuel costs alone at 89 cents per mile. Short haul rates are even higher. Industry watchers say fuel costs may add from 15-28 percent on top of baseline haul rates.
Economics aren’t the explanation for everything, but they’re a base for much of the national angst. For 250 years, our social, political and economic rules have allowed states to run their state’s respective social and economic policies however they pleased. If a state got too-extreme, companies were free to “vote with their feet” and relocate to friendlier places.
Today, extremes have pushed costs to ridiculous levels. California has a “billionaire tax” initiative on the ballot this fall. New York has their pied-á-terre tax and both places use “lawfare” to advance ideological or partisan agendas. Under their rules, businesses are at risk. Without the businesses, their social systems are at risk. Tesla, Oracle, Chevron and others have already eliminated the risk associated with California headquarters. California’s suing to keep the movie business from following suit.
Twenty five years after 9/11, we have cities and states at risk of becoming “failed states” due to laws based on imagined injustice and class envy.
Twenty five years after terrorism pulled this country together we’re facing the very real possibility that politics and poor policy decisions will accomplish what terrorists failed to do.
Today is a time for solemn remembrance of the 2,977 innocents who died twenty-five years ago. But it’s also the time we need to renew the vows that we made that day. We must, as it is attributed to Benjamin Franklin, “hang together or we shall assuredly hang separately.”
Stand up. Show up. Speak up. We are still worth it.
— Jim Shepherd