It’s hard to believe that this week is the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our country. 

Six years can feel short and long at the same time.   As someone who lives just outside of Washington, D.C., I have somehow been able to exist in a state of blissful denial about the danger that comes with residing within miles of the the White House and the Pentagon, yet I recall like it was yesterday the constant buzz of F-17 fighter jets circling overhead my house for weeks after the attacks – their sounds streaking through the sky became a sort of white noise that I stopped noticing out of mental self-preservation until it was gone sometime in October that year.

As we approach the sixth anniversary of 9/11 and anticipate the release of the General Petraeus report about the status of the war in Iraq, I found myself thinking, as I was driving back from a relatively carefree weekend at the beach, that the things that could really make us safer here in the “homeland” just haven’t been done.  And I have to wonder, “Why?”

We don’t need commissions or brilliant thinkers to anticipate where the next targets could be or how to protect them.  Where are the safeguards for the country’s power plants, nuclear and otherwise that were promised?  What’s been done to secure our dams?  Should I still be worrying about the trains that carry toxic waste past the Capitol?  What about the subways?  And Amtrak?  Are we really safer when we take our shoes off passing through the security checkpoint at the airports?

For some reason, our lawmakers have not been able to find the time in the last six years to solve these seemingly easily fixable issues.  Is it really so hard to find a way to anticipate where terrorists might want to attack us next?  Or are they in denial as a way to get through the day, like me?

The more I think about questions like this, the more it looks like our leaders aren’t leaders at all. 

To lead suggests being proactive.  Yet, those who are supposedly on watch in Congress and the White House seem to be capable only of playing defense.  While that might come in handy on the football field, it isn’t really helpful if you’re fighting those who have turned imagination into a dirty word.

I know that supposedly we’re fighting them “over there” so we don’t have to fight them “over here,” but that’s not working out so well.  I have a bad feeling that we may not have to wait another six years to see what’s going to happen to the “homeland.”  Isn’t it time our lawmakers aren’t tuned in to that likelihood?