Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader, like many others, remembers what this day was like six years ago. It was a bright and clear day. Your Maximum Leader wished he was playing hooky in fact. He remembers the sun reflected in the rippling waters of the Lynnhaven River. He remembers the President of his company calling and asking if yours truly had the training room TV, a plane had just hit the World Trade Center and he wanted to see what was happening. Then he remembers a co-worker coming in to his office and saying another plane had hit the other World Trade Center tower. A few minutes later the phone calls started. Husbands were calling wives. Navy husbands were calling their wives. The conversations all were about the same. “You’ve got to come home and watch the kids. My ship is leaving Norfolk now. No, not later, RIGHT NOW.” Your Maximum Leader was on his cell phone talking to the Air Marshal (who was in Crystal City - near the Pentagon). Our conversation ended abruptly when the Air Marshal announced that there was an explosion at the Pentagon and he had to go. Your Maximum Leader remembers 100 people standing in a room with space enough for 30 watching a small color tv as the Towers fell. He remembers Peter Jennings reporting that Palistinians were dancing in the streets of Gaza. (He also remembers Peter Fucking Jennings making some glib comment about how he could understand why the Palistinians were happy. That was the last time your Maximum Leader ever watched that man.) He remembers wondering what the count of the dead would be. 10,000? 15,000? He remembers seeing images of the fleet leaving Hampton Roads for the open sea. He also remembers wanting revenge.

Your Maximum Leader’s anger has subsided somewhat but there is still passion there. What happened before can happen again. We must be vigilant. We must be strong. We must remember.

Carry on.