For the week of September 11 - 17, 2002

True tribute

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Today marks the end of a year of shock, killing, grief, war and destruction.

It’s right that we honor those lost and injured in the terrorist attack that took more than 2,800 lives.

In New York today, people will weep again at the holes where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center once stood. In Washington, D.C., where the Pentagon withstood an attack aimed at the heart of the nation, people will pause and pray. In Shanksville, Pa., people will remember the heroes of Flight 93 who refused to let it become a bomb.

Oceans of words have surged through the country in anticipation of this day. The words are right, the commemorations worthy. Yet, the words will ring hollow as September cornstalks—if the nation does not pursue action to support them.

One year later, the government of the most wired nation in the world still has key agencies with computers that can’t communicate with one another. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is a mess. The Central Intelligence Agency is without the people it needs to operate in the Middle East. Planes and air terminals are not secure.

Yes, Afghanistan is out of the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but terrorist networks live on.

We can do better.

Action is the only true tribute to the dead. We must get moving.

We must secure ourselves and protect free societies. We must confront and defeat forces that support and supply terrorists. We must do everything within our power to eradicate state-sponsored terror.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.