Heard any good 9/11 jokes lately? Apparently, AOC and Zohran Mamdani had. As family members of the terrorist victims read the names aloud in a solemn ceremony at Ground Zero, being bad and boujee Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdaniwere yukking it up, unwittingly on camera. In spite of a petition from 1 00,000 New Yorkers opposing his presence, the mayor showed up anyway.  Sadly, I must conclude that the lessons learned on the 25th commemoration of 911 are few. Back in 2000, the State Department was lax on visa applications (www.fairus.org/issue/identity-and-immigration-status-911-terrorists) and following the Biden installation of 2020 open borders wasn’t just policy. It was dogma. In 2001, the nation was united. Now, we are divided. Observantly, yet inexplicably, there are some among us who consider hate of self, nation and Western civilization as the shiniest of all virtue signals. While we often hear that the Green (Islamist)-Red (Communist) alliance has strengthened, the assertion can go further as the enemy without has confederated with the enemy within. But that villainous alliance, if successful, will be a short-lived marriage of convenience destined for a bloody divorce as a foundation of co-useful idiots is non-enduring. Back then, galvanized resolve embraced the nation. Patriotism, anger and pride tempered the shock, fear and sadness. In defiance of the enemy, we did our best to carry out normal activities. My wife and I decided that our girls, then 4 and 13, must see the resulting devastation from the heinous attacks on our country, not seen since Pearl Harbor. I was in the Army Reserve. We knew that deployment was imminent. For Thanksgiving week in 2001, our family went to New York City to support our countrymen. And while in town, we watched the Macy’s Day Parade. Tony Bennett concluded the march, crooning out “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” During our time in the Big Apple, we went to Ground Zero daily. The scene was a quiet and respectful memorial despite the recovery operations. Everywhere, blackened strips of office paper floated in the air like the leaves of fall. It was amazing to realize that the paper was fluttering aloft over Manhattan for 60-plus days. New Yorkers were at their best, friendly and certainly not defeated. There was a determined war-face even at Starbucks, where cops toting M4s were welcome. In the falling summer, we embarked on a road trip from Florida to the Pentagon and then on to Pennsylvania. Obviously, we didn’t expect to get the full Pentagon tour. There was a gaping chasm in the wall from which Ole Glory flew, yet our nation’s headquarters was operational and abuzz with activity.  As we arrived on that field of honor, a restored strip mine and now the National Park Service’s Flight 93 National Memorial. A local man greeted us. He explained he was the first on the scene of the final destination of the heroic flight. He recounted that flight 93 impacted the ground at such a high velocity that the aircraft buried itself and fragmented, whereas the largest piece was the size of a car hood. Initially, fire department officials accused our guide of calling in a hoax because they couldn’t find any wreckage. Undoubtedly, the heroes of Flight 93 saved the Capitol.  By 2003, I had orders for Iraq. I had already pulled a peacekeeping gig in Bosnia in 1999. When I returned from Bagram, Afghanistan, in 2012, I had accumulated almost four years in Muslim-majority nations. In between deployments, I had a six-month language and cultural immersion class. Once in-country, our mission as a civil affairs battalion was to encourage self-determination and self-sufficiency. I was a liaison with the local population, host government ministries, international NGOs, the State Department, and USAID. We signed up to help make Iraq great again, not bring the entire Middle Eastern population home. War was declared on the front porch, and globalist elites left the back door open. While the Global War on Terror endured, our aforementioned “betters” facilitated a surge of unvetted and unskilled military-aged males into the West. It was the same circumstance for our NATO allies such as the Australians, the British, Canadians, and others. Only the Hungarians and the Poles were wise enough not to provide limitless free hotel accommodations, fine dining and criminal immunity from mayhem, rape, assault and murder. Now before ewe the sheeple go bleating Islamophobia, consider this: the Muslim Brotherhood coined the term in the 1970s, intending to render Islam impenetrable to any criticism. There are some references to European Orientalists tailoring the term a hundred years ago as well.   If we continue to import the Third World, we will become the Third World. Not all cultures are compatible. American patriots are in a two-front war to save the country we love. There are the okiphobic socialists who simply seek America’s destruction. And then there are the suicidal emphatic, who advocate for the “human rights” of people who hate us and plan to destroy us.  America’s borders must remain secure and the invaders repatriated. Our days of living in the land of the free are limited if we are fearful, passive, conflict-avoidant, compliant,and no longer brave. “Let’s roll.” Jerry Heck Oakley The post Supposed to help, not house appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less