The thing about being home sick on September 11, 2002, is that there’s nothing reasonable to watch on TV. The commemorative ceremonies this morning were something special, but now, all that is gone, and you have a bunch of dreck from a bunch of blow-dried talking heads who wouldn’t really understand the concept of freedom if it bit them square in the ass.

People are free to commemorate this day or not. Some will say that not doing so is disrespectful, and I understand that. Some will say that choosing not to commemorate shows that the terrorists haven’t changed them. I would argue that, except for those that directly lost loved ones a year ago today or have loved ones overseas in the on-going “war on terror”, few of us have truly had our lives changed.

Sure, there are a lot of folks in NYC that have had their worlds shaken apart, and that goes the same for the other attack sites. Besides that, though … who’s had their world profoundly changed? I haven’t. Okay, some small things have changed, but anything big? Nope. That, in my mind, is the biggest testament to America–that we can have something so dastardly happen that, after being dazed for just a little bit, we got up, dusted ourselves off, kicked a little ass, and asked the world, “Okay, who wants some? That’s what I thought.”

Then we went back to being our normal selves.

Will anything ever be truly normal again? That’s a truly silly question–any crisis situation fundamentally changes us, because in the American political experiment, times of crisis enhance the power of the national government. Stop and think: the Whiskey Rebellion and other things in the post-Revolution days changed the view of American politics from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution we currently choose to live under; the War of 1812 probably cemented the realization that our country would have to keep a standing army; the Civil War taught us that unity was the most important thing [slavery was just the discussion point]; World War I taught us that our country could kick a little butt outside of our own hemisphere a century after the Monroe Docrtine; the Depression extended the power of the Executive into the economy; World War II truly taught us about power projection and to be ever vigilant against surprise attacks; Korea taught us that the Cold War was going to be a bitch; the Viet Nam Conflict just proved that we didn’t pay attention a generation earlier; Desert Storm reminded us to be smart about our military goals; and last year we learned that there are lot of people who hate all that America stands for.

Every one of those events has its benefits and its drawbacks. Executive power has been ever increasing over the past two centuries, and I’m not so sure that’s a great thing. [The Constitution provided for a limited executive for a reason.] Even now, there are reasonable infringements being made on our freedoms [pretty much anything this side of a full cavity search, in the nude, in the hallways for all to see is fine by me], but there are plenty more infringements being made that make no sense [illegal wiretaps, searches and seizures, etc.].

Libertarians rail against this sort of thing, but the point must be made: American leaders govern with the just consent of the governed. If the USA Patriot Act pisses you off, see if your Congresscritters voted for it … and if they did, and it really pisses you off, vote ‘em the hell out of office, and send ‘em a nice note telling ‘em why you voted for the other guy. Our government will only ever have as much power as we’re willing to cede them, and while the courts–especially the Supreme Court–do remain ever-vigilant on infringement of these freedoms, the stand you take at the ballot box is much, much more direct than anything else you can do.

We’re not fundamentally changed–America is still about freedom. We’re cosmetically changed, and we’re attitudinally changed. That’s all well and good–attitude and cosmetics change, but fundamentals are forever.