I haven’t changed since Sept. 11.

I didn’t like some of the Arab world before the event, and I still don’t.

I know this will make people mad, but this sentimental slop of flag waving, and hand-wringing remembrances over Sept. 11 makes me sick.

Grief is real. But many Americans are using it for their own selfish purposes----to feel good about themselves.

This is probably the only opinion of its kind. When you start to boil reading it, just remember, this is supposedly a free country. You don’t have to agree.

Why all the slush over Sept. 11? Who remembers the killed sailors on the U.S.S. Cole? No ceremonies for them. The answer is that unlike the Twin Towers, only a handful of the Cole sailors died.

Americans call the bombed victims of the towers, and the hijacked airplanes---- heroes. Most of the victims were people going about their everyday business when they were killed. My opinion in no way is intended to lessen or cheapen their horrendous tragedy, or the need to bring the culprits to justice.

But Americans have got to get their cards straight on what a hero is. A hero is not someone who reacts bravely to a crisis situation while going about the business of their own self-interest.

A hero is a person who knowingly puts their life on the line beforehand, for a good cause.

That some nuts haven’t managed until now to crash a plane into a skyscraper is practically a miracle. You can also park a dynamite truck next to a building as shown in the Oklahoma bombing.

 What makes me mad is this. A large number of Americans only act patriotically after they’ve been attacked, after they feel personally threatened. They ignored it as long as they could. A good percentage of our teenagers still today have absolutely no conception of personal sacrifice or honor.

Watch MTV to see the real America (even MTV, a monument to hedonism, got patriotic for a time).

During Vietnam, veterans came home to be spat upon, and cursed. Americans felt bad about that, had guilty consciences, and later, during Desert Storm, showered returning veterans with tears, flowers and balloons to make up for Vietnam (some Desert Storm returnees had been on peaceful duty in Germany for only six months). 

A country that allows madmen with turbans on their heads to enter with student visas, uses foreigners of dubious loyalty at airport checking gates, allows an avalanche of illegal immigration, constantly brags about “diversity,” turns the world into a welfare state, acts as a weapons supplier for the world (we formerly gave Iraq military aid), and uses military service largely as a job training program for inner-city kids, shouldn’t act so surprised that something like this could happen.

I’ve always felt military service should be made mandatory for young people, to infuse them with some guts.

Last Sept. 11, some friends of mine, as the horrible news came in, decided to go outside to a flagpole and have a salute. These were decent people, but not one of them had ever served their country---not one day. Up until now, they thought only of their wallets.

I declined to go with them. My own modest service amounts to five years.

I felt that sorrow, genuine sorrow over what people are willing to do to each other in the name of religion or politics, was a more fitting expression than erratic, jingoistic, opportunistic patriotism.

Read a related column: Clearly Bad