Ahh, Memorial Day. The day when, as a nation, we remember our past mistakes and try to figure out who should be sued about them and how much a dead patriot is worth. Or something like that.

There's been a lot of hullabaloo about what the President (and his administration) knew before 9/11 happened, and why they didn't tell us all to watch for planes falling from the sky. It's been mostly partisan politics playing a part in this, because there's nothing else to talk about, apparently. I do like the fact that, for the first time since the terrorist attacks, someone is saying something negative about the President's stumble into an ever-widening conflict in the Middle East. It's always good to have dissenting views discussing the action or inaction of the current administration.

But I'm here to tell you it wouldn't be any different if Gore was in the White House. Or anyone else for that matter. There had never been anything like what happened last September, so the prevailing notion that it couldn't happen here made it impossible for any warning to be made.

It doesn't matter if they put more money into fighting terrorism back then (actually the current administration was taking money out of the terrorism fund right up until the attack occurred), because there was no precedent. The clear warning everyone seems to think should have occurred did happen--the warning was the attacks themselves. Until then, foreign terrorism was a phantom that never showed its head in this country.

Trying to find out who should have said what is kind of like going back and trying to figure out why those kids at Columbine weren't caught before they killed. It's not like you can just stand up and say, "It was George, he was the one who wanted Greedo to shoot first." There is no clear answer.

Having said that, I still like that Bush and his cronies are getting shit over this. It's been awhile since anyone could say anything against the Prez without getting branded "unpatriotic." Although that scarlet letter is still bandied about with great frequency. Someday the sellers of that load will realize that speaking out isn't "unpatriotic," keeping your mouth shut is. Of course, you don't get into as much trouble if you keep your mouth shut. Just ask the guys from Enron. Well, you can ask, but they won't tell.

The real problem and what we should be hammering the Bushies about is the way they've handled the country since the attacks. Sure, the first three months or so would not have been much different no matter who was in charge, but once perspective was gained, someone should have realized that we are going in the wrong direction. We are doing exactly what the terrorists want us to do.

We are making the Arab world the pariah for everyone wrong with the world. This makes all those people who were pissed at the US even more pissed--and even more likely to attack. And all the security in the world will not stop it. And the great prognosticator Dick Cheney has told all of us that another attack will happen (that's some foresight you got there, buddy), so why do I still get strip searched getting on a plane?

If nothing could be done before the attacks and nothing can be done to stop further attacks, then what the hell are we doing?

And then there's the whole Israel vs. Palestine thing, which turned into a huge clusterfuck a while back and is not getting better. Someday soon there will just be a big smoking hole where those countries used to be.

So we all need to calm down and realize that the 9/11 attacks did nothing to change anything except put a flag on every car and in every house window in the nation. In fact, things are worse and it's our fault--not the terrorists.

If we had the capacity to learn from this lesson, maybe it would be better. But we seem to have the collective mentality of a pea brain. We can't get past singing five sappy "patriotic" songs before every sporting event. We can't get past forcing our students to say the Pledge of Allegiance five times fast. We think we'll be safer if we implant identification into everyone's back. We can't seem to get over this, just like some people don't ever get over that one girl or guy who broke their heart into little teeny tiny bits.

So this is my hope for Memorial Day and the heady summer season that follows: That we realize all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty together again. So we should make a big omelet, eat well and move on.

Matt Worley likes eggs over medium most of the time.