America — Home of the Safe

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Archived Editorial Articles by DARRELL D. MOBLEY

Monday, September 24, 2001

IT'S BEEN A WHILE since I have written here, but in light of the recent events that have inadvertently affected the rocketry hobby, I have been going over a few things in my head. Like most of you, I watched with wide-eyed horror as the events of September 11th unfolded upon the American landscape. Nothing as horrific has ever happened to American citizens on their own soil.

Early that Tuesday morning as news commentators blathered in disorientation about what was happening, I sat on the edge of my bed and watched as a second plane plowed into the World Trade Center. Certainly, I must be still asleep and experiencing one of the worst nightmares a person's psyche could conjure up.

Only I wasn't. It was real. And it was happening in America.

"Something evil was going to worm its way into this situation, and without even knowing it, Americans were going to suffer losses most weren't even capable of considering."

I never cease to be amazed at the outpouring of humanity that similar, although less dramatic, situations have engendered in the American people. Certainly, we respond to those situations and pony up whatever is deemed necessary to soothe the pain — financial contributions, physical labor, assistance offered in whatever sense we can imagine would be beneficial. Americans all over the globe responded that day as individuals who chose to put their lives on the line lost them during the rescue attempts. Others organized blood drives, financial donations, telethons, and other charitable events.

Yet in the back of my mind, something was troubling me. Something evil was going to worm its way into this situation, and without even knowing it, Americans were going to suffer losses most weren't even capable of considering. Or are unwilling to do so.

Terrorism, by its very nature, isn't about anything other than disrupting the lives of ordinary people by leveraging fear. As I listened on the news today, two weeks from that fateful day, about crop dusters being grounded for a second day in a row, I realized that the terrorists had scored another victory — their campaign to dishevel the lives of American citizens was notching up win after win, yet the ultimate casualty hasn't even begun to be identified in the media. The ultimate casualty will be the incremental erosion of personal liberties within our country, all because of fear. Within that regard, the terrorists have already won.

As patriotic as events such as this makes us, I wonder if anyone really understands what it means. For example, would Thomas Jefferson have been appalled at what happened, yet still maintained that the outcome was acceptable if it meant not sacrificing a single God-given liberty that America was founded on? As our soldiers died over the years in the line of fire for the namesake of American freedom, is a civilian's life equally as expendable to protect the same? Those closest to the price our freedom originally cost would make a stronger argument for that case than anyone else today.

"And look at the people on TV, in the newspaper and magazines, in your workplace, even your friends. Everyone is willing to give up something in exchange for their own personal security."

We are so patriotic in response to outside attacks on our way of life yet we line up to participate in inside attacks to that very lifestyle. I don't mean "we" as in "we rocket enthusiasts," I mean the broad populace of the country. I continue to reel at the proposals, observations, suggestions and offers to give away the very thing that makes this the greatest nation on earth — our freedom. Terrorists win when we give up those things that they despise. They crash a plane, we give up curbside check-in. They win. They threaten chemical warfare, we ground our cropdusters and live with West Nile virus. They win. We park our ultralights. They win. We stop flying rockets. They win. By stripping us of the lifestyle we enjoyed because of our personal freedoms, they have, in the end, won.

While talking to a 25 year old young lady the other day, I was comparing the WTC event to Pearl Harbor, stating the obvious difference that at least the people in Hawaii signed up to be shot at, unlike the ordinary citizens who lived and worked in New York City. She asked me, "That was during Viet Nam, wasn't it?" "No," I said, "it was during World War II." "Who exactly did we fight in World War II?," she replied. I realized I may as well have been having the discussion with millions and millions of others in America who probably would have responded the same way. I'd be willing to bet that she could have told me the names of every CD Madonna had every released, and probably the years in which they came out, but to know the participants of the largest fight for freedom this world has every seen was obviously asking too much. Why is our freedom worth so little to us?

And look at the people on TV, in the newspaper and magazines, in your workplace, even your friends. Everyone is willing to give up something in exchange for their own personal security. They think, as do many of us, that the loss of security is more uncomfortable and of more value, than the loss of personal freedoms. Because, in my opinion, they don't know how much their freedom originally cost. Look at what the Great Depression did to personal liberty in America. In exchange for Social Security, FDIC insurance, and all the other government-inspired solutions from that period, Americans gave up the right to spend their money as they see fit — by accepting the sales job used to present the federal income tax system with wide-spread arms, and in the end gave away as much as 50% of their wages each and every year. For security.

Why are we willing to expand our hearts and give to others in such an American way yet we aren't willing to stand up for what it is that gave us the ability to do so in the first place? For the sake of the "real" American Dream, don't give away your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren's birthright just for the sake of getting a better night's sleep today — their very future depends on it. I know ours does.

Darrell D. Mobley is the editor of Rocketry Planet. You may reach him by email at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .