SEPT. 11, A DAY IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA

There are two things Americans should always remember about the 9/11 terror attacks. First, we should not and can not ever forget what those animals did to our country and countrymen. Second, and more importantly, we must never forget those whose lives were lost. We must continue to honor their memorys' and lives forever. The minute we stop the terrorists win.

That being said, there are two things this country must stop doing. First, we must all stop using the attacks as an excuse for EVERYTHING! The federal government uses it as an excuse to spy on its own people ant userp constitutional law governing basic civil liberties. 2) The airlines use it as an excuse to grossly inflate fares and turn around and blame the increas onextra security measures needed because of 9/11. Then, they wonder why the industry is going bankrupt. 3) Employers refusing to increase wages of employees and/or refusing to pay or offer benefits because of what the 9/11 attacks did to their industry.

The second thing, we must stop being victims! It has been four years since the attacks. When are we going to stop being victims? These people hit us and hit us hard. Does that mean we should paint our windows black and hide in a closet wondering when the next attack will occur? Does it mean we cower in a corner every time we hear a loud noise? When does it stop?

Our elected officials told us we should get back to normal routines as quickly as possible, how are we supposed to do that when all we hear from them is that we might need more broad and less restrictive policies governing what the intelligence and law enforcement agencies can do in this country? Employers are even worse, they deny raises and downsize their workforces in order to "cut costs". In reality, the majority of them do it to increase corporate profits and bonuses of ownership and high level corporate officials.

Now, I understand this is not necessarily true of all of corporate America, some industries took a serious hit, but after four years there has to have been recovery.

It has been brought to my attention that I may have slipped to the LIBERAL way of thinking, let me dispense with that notion right now. I have no problem with corporations making a profit; I have a problem with them lying to me about it. What I mean is this, a company makes one million dollars this year in profit (the black line), Next year its black line is 950,000 dollars, the companies ownersip will tell its employees it took a loss or that it lost money, in reality, it simply did not make as much profit. I draw on my own experience as an example, a few years back I worked for a large retail electronics corporation. I was paid on a commission(percentage of sales)basis. The company decided at the end of the year to RESTRUCTURE its commission rates. Basically, it decided to lower them so the compay would be paying less in payroll. The question was posed to a member of management WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THE PAY CUT? This managent persons response was that it was not a paycut but an oppurtunity to maximize sales oppurtunities and it was being done because the company LOST MONEY last year implying the company dipped from a profit to a loss, thereby putting the solvency of the company in peril. After doing a little research, I discovered that the LOSS was a minimal drop in profit not a corporate money crunch that would have caused bankruptcy. Needless to say, I no longer work for that company. The bottom line is don't tell me the company is in financial straights when the truth is you simply want to make more money. I will have more respect for you if you are honest.