So now I gird my loins for what will be the annual chest beating and all around maudlin remembrance of September 11, 2001. And what have we really learned in 12 months? We have learned that Americans really do care about each other. In times of adversity we pulled together as we have not done in a long time. We also learned how the average Joe can be a hero, especially when looking his own death in the face. I think we learned something basic about the American spirit and Sept 11 brought that out in all of us.

But the commemoration of this horrific event is now bringing out some of the worst of the American Spirit. Every network from ABC to ESPN (oh yea they are the same) are rolling out their Special, Exclusive, No one else is doing what we are doing, So watch us and feed our advertisers special. This is that part of the American spirit if you will that is sensationalist. We seem to have a hunger for endlessly revisiting stories that get so "up close and personal" even I shy away from it.

I also think that this horrible event has unfortunately brought out the dark side of the American spirit. Call it the Jingoistic or Ugly American spirit. Seems like every mean and nasty person out there is now sporting some sort of patriotic T-shirt or whatever stating how great it is to be an American and if you aren't then you are going to straight to hell. Somehow being a patriotic American citizen has become entangled with being a good Christian. Now how did that happen? This is a country of immigrants who brought their own creeds with them. This growing intolerance of anything not Caucasian and Christian is probably what makes me the most angry. It is a perversion of the American Spirit.

That's right folks the biggest problem with this American over reaction to last year's events is the bully we have become. All of a sudden from individuals to the Government itself if you are not "on the program" you are being UnAmerican. It's Unamerican to question if the President is doing the right thing. It is Unamerican to question if the Civil Rights of immigrants. It is Unamerican to ask what exactly is going on in Guantanamo Bay. I'm not asserting that the President is not doing the right thing, nor that these Civil Rights are being violated nor if anything funky is going on in Guantanamo Bay.

What I am asserting is that there is a general air that the simple Asking is not American.

Somehow the one lesson that American's did not seem to learn in the last 12 months is that the world is a VERY small place. Instead what we seem to have learned is that because due to our unique place in the world at this time and moment in history we can do as a country whatever we damn well please in the rest of the world. Allies? Who needs them!