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For an 18 year old, “before” was carefree. Although I was never really a “kid,” I also didn’t worry about national security or whether the nuclear power plant 25 minutes away from my college campus would be blown up.

“Before” was sleep filled nights, no real knowledge of foreign terrorists hating freedom and everything we stand for, and feeling safe in the friendly skies.

“Before” was the thought that my future children would grow up in a similar fashion to the way I was brought up – playing out in the front yard, traveling to larger cities without a thought of bombings, and no notion of a war coming to my small home town.

Now, all of this has changed. In a world that is constantly evolving, it is a bit naïve to think that life wouldn’t be different. But what September 11, 2001 brought to light was that no ocean could protect us any longer, and there is an enemy that has no fear of death. The goal of that enemy is to seek, kill, and destroy what Providence has afforded us.

From my dorm room I watched as people decided that plunging from a 100 story window was a better fate than burning to death. From our dorm common room friends watched as the towers crumbled and the Pentagon burned. In our college Chapel we learned what was emerging as the heroic tale of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93. Instead of allowing another plane to be used as a jet fuel filled air missile, those brave men and women decided to protect their country before themselves.

As the next few days wore on we all saw and felt a sense unity that had been lacking.  There were no denominations, religions, races, nor genders. We realized that we were Americans. There was us and there was the enemy.

If the terrorists had truly looked at us – or would look at us today – they would see that we are a nation of resolve. True, we may get into political fights amongst ourselves – but blood is thicker than water.  If an enemy thinks for one moment that they can get away with thumping us, they have another thing coming.

We are the beacon of freedom and liberty that the rest of the world longs for.  We are the model that those who are repressed look to.  We radiate with an unmatched intensity in the darkness that has consumed much of the world.

Former President Bush stood at ground zero mere days after the catastrophe and said, “I hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” True to his word, the enemy has heard and continues to hear us. From the brave men and women who fight in uniform to those that patrol and protect our boarders to civilians remaining vigilant – we learned our lesson. We won’t be caught unaware again.

In memory of those that gave their lives on September 11 and that have given their lives since then in the fight for freedom, may we continue to realize what is most important for the posterity of this nation. Truly may we stand and say with one voice – May God continue to bless America.

Noticeably missing from this jobs speech were words like “stimulus” which was recently banned in political rhetoric by Nancy Pelosi, likely due to the negative connotation it has developed over the multiple failed stimulus plans.

Also missing was any discussion about “green” jobs. Odd, considering the clean energy industry was one of the biggest winners of the 2009 stimulus package awarding the energy industry over $17 billion in stimulus money and even more in the stimulus bills since then. Throughout his 2008 campaign, Obama said it was this kind of funding to the clean energy companies that would result in the creation of 5 million jobs. We are still sitting at above 9% unemployment. Not one time did he mention green energy in last night’s speech. Did he decide that after watching the clean energy companies that received billions through the stimulus package either file bankruptcy or move to China, that this program did not work? Any lesser woman at this point would say “I told you so” but, I consider myself a lady and would never say such a thing.

What we did hear, however, was “pass this jobs bill now!” As a matter of fact, this was said a total of 17 times and said with such force and conviction that the listener couldn’t help but think this guy was trying to convince himself of the urgency! Surprisingly, (or maybe not so surprisingly) the bill doesn’t even exist in its legislative form yet. Apparently, Obama’s vacation to Martha’s Vineyard was not a working vacation after all.

I’m sure many listeners were as confused as I was about another important issue: where are the billions for this package going to come from? Can Bernanke really print that fast? Maybe he can. After all, he has been getting a lot of practice recently.

The talking is getting very old. So old, in fact, that the Republicans didn’t even bother to respond to his speech last night.

It was about a dream that so many young people have. Finish their education, find that “special someone,” get married, start a family, and own their own home. One guy even said he wanted a house w/ a white picket fence to grow his family, keep them safe, and give his future wife something to be proud of. To that the young woman of the bunch laughed. She said that was just a fairy tale. Those type of homes, that type of family doesn’t exist.

That caused me to pause.

How very, very sad. Absolutely no hope in the poor girl’s mind to achieve any of that. I was brought up to recognize and strive to achieve much of what that young man wanted. If I worked hard enough and never quit trying these things were possible. There was and is always hope. What must it be like to live without hope of bettering yourself? Without hope to bring yourself out of poverty or whatever desperate situation you might be in?

Then, of course, my mind turned to the plague of big government. There are those in power at every level of government laughing every single day at the dream that millions of young people see slipping away.

You see – not only are we becoming more and more like a nanny state, we’re becoming the ultimate welfare state. With so many bureaucrats trying to restrain our goals through regulations on ourselves and businesses, it makes it easier to sit at home and do nothing and stay on the government’s proverbial teat than go out, get a job, and earn a living.

The young woman who was laughing at this man’s dream of having a white picket fence and a nice home for his family seems to have already realized that with all of the restrictions and lower expectations placed on her, it’s just easier to stay at home and wait on a check or stand in line to get food stamps. How sad to hear that the American dream has morphed into something so… well… dreamless.

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