“‘Tribute in Light,’ the world’s beloved twin beams of light, will not shine over lower Manhattan as part of this year’s 9/11 commemoration. This incredibly difficult decision was reached in consultation with our partners after concluding the health risks during the pandemic were far too great for the large crew required…” — National September 11 Memorial & Museum, later reversing this decision after a public outcry, quoted by cbs News, 8/17/20

“A virus a thousand times smaller than a dust mote has humbled and humiliated the planet’s most powerful nation. America has … lost its status as a global leader.” — The Atlantic, “How the Pandemic Defeated America: a virus has brought the world’s most powerful country to its knees,” September 2020 issue

One score minus one year ago, on September 11, 2001, Islamofascists murdered thousands of us in New York City, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, PA. Amidst twisted steel and fire and ash and torturous death, America saw the physical and moral courage of her people as firefighters and cops ran toward mortal danger.

Flags emerged even as Ground Zero smoldered. We knew evil had hurt the best of us and had tried to end us. We knew precisely what had been attacked: the blessings of American liberty. But we also knew what we were made of, and all of us understood that our liberty yet lived. On every street, in every neighborhood, we proved it by flying the stars and stripes. And not a knee was bowed, but in prayer.

9/11 is an anniversary the left has attempted to subdue ever since. First it was “too soon” for the news networks to broadcast the horrific images from that day, or even to speak of those who jumped from the burning towers, choosing between death and death. As time passed, the unspeakable became the rarely spoken about. And now, a mere nineteen years after promising each other never to forget, have we forgotten? Are we going to let the left’s hate-filled vision of a “humbled and humiliated” America take hold?

Oh hell no.

Folks, this is what has been bothering me since the covid-19 pandemic began. I finally figured it out. We are not acting at all like Americans. We are not cowards. We don’t retreat. We don’t find the nearest corner to curl up in and cower. We don’t look for excuses for inaction or failure. We’re the Americans who have beat back every enemy we have faced, with a fearlessness and a swagger that we earned. Go back as far as you want, all the way to the British Empire, to Hitler and Japan in World War II, to the Taliban, al Qaeda, isis. We came together as Americans and kicked the snot out of them all.

That swagger is missing. People are hunkered down, fighting each other over masks and social distancing — behavior which is totally alien to us. We can’t live this way. We can’t do this. This is not who we are. We are not a nation of victims, not entire generations of us. This is not how we have become who we are. This is not how we have stayed who we are.

I’ve been telling you about the stunning data from Kekst cnc, an international business consulting firm whose “covid-19 Opinion Tracker” shows that people believe the pandemic is much worse than it is, according to The Naples [FL] Daily News.“The average figure Americans gave when asked to estimate how many of their fellow citizens had died of covid-19 was 9 percent. That would translate to about 30 million deaths.” The cdc figure as of 8/20/20 is about 170,000.

This wildly distorted perception on the part of Americans did not happen by accident. The drive-by media has been doing everything in its considerable powers to give this exact impression. Their aim is to keep everyone terrified. Not a day goes by without their narrative engineering meant to induce panic. You are not given a break from the flood of news that is designed to frighten and depress you. Any positive developments on therapeutics, infection prevalence, or immunity are suppressed. Because that would suggest progress. Good news would lead people to conclude that the economy should not be shut down again. It would suggest that mail-in voting isn’t necessary.

I could pull out charts and graphs demonstrating that the virus is ebbing dramatically — with the death rate in all age groups, according to the cdc, plummeting toward zero. But I only need one chart, as shown on these pages: we need to flatten the fear curve.

Unfortunately, the Democrat narrative, in a nutshell, is this: “It’s too dangerous to go to work! It’s too dangerous to vote in a voting booth! It’s almost too dangerous to live! But if you follow our guidelines, we, the Democrat Party, can protect you. But you must stay home, and vote by mail, unless Trump steals all the mailboxes.” Democrats and their media accomplices are hell-bent on fearmongering because they absolutely need fear to exploit the crisis.

The designed chaos is all-encompassing. They are doing everything possible to unmoor Americans from our own cultural institutions and daily routines — otherwise known as the American way. Look what is permitted, and what is not. Not permitted: open businesses, schools, churches, or beaches; family visitation at hospitals, including deathbeds; graduation ceremonies, weddings, and funerals (except for important liberals). Permitted: riots, burning police headquarters and federal courthouses, harming cops, looting, arson, destruction of monuments. That last one is key. The left is particularly focused on toppling statues, including George Washington, detaching us from our history — so we forget who we are.

Which is why it’s so crucial that we don’t forget. And precisely why I point out that this cowering in the face of this enemy, covid-19, isn’t who we are. Americans aren’t victims, too afraid to accomplish hard things because there’s a virus out there. We can’t shut down American society for the next three years as a kneejerk reaction to scary numbers from the media. Life has to go on. Life is to be lived. Your life is worth so much more than what the media wants for you, as they whisper to you, over and over, “It’s too hard! It’s too dangerous! Don’t even try.”

We all need to be reminded of the inspired, uplifting truth about who we are: Americans. Each of us must treasure our amazing inheritance as an American citizen, and our responsibility to that legacy. We stand on the shoulders of giants, of countless ordinary men and women of courage and faith who did not flinch at hardships or wilt at the prospects of danger or even disease. We owe them, and we owe the next generations, the honor of living our best life. Pursue happiness. Do not hide from risk. That is the secret to being American.

This should become one of the President’s themes as he goes forward in his 2020 campaign. We need a national address to tell the people of this country the truth of who we are, how we got here, and why it made us a superpower. Yes, a national address is called for, I’m certain of it. Heck, I’ll do it!

My fellow Americans, I just did.