September 11, 2001 changed our lives forever. In some ways, it gave us all a purpose that we would have never had. Nevertheless, our time in uniform may be over, but our duty is not done.
Transcript
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Chris Albert (link to this point)
It's amazing that an entire generation could have their lives changed by the events of a of a single day, Okay? That happened over a hundred years ago with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It happened close to eighty years ago with Pearl Harbor, and it happened for us. Most of us who listen to this podcast and and for me, on 09/11/2001. The events of that single day transformed my life and the lives of so many others.
And I remember watching what happened that day and wondering what was going to become of the world. But then I also remember the very next day, the goodwill that people had toward each other, the idea that we were all a single country, and that there was this enemy out there that was trying to get us, but we were stronger than them. And we were fighting for good, we were fighting for freedom, and we were fighting for America. You know, the political events that followed on from nine eleven. You know, we had the invasion of Afghanistan, and then we eventually had the invasion of Iraq.
The political events that carried on after that, well, they made a different impact on the country, and and we're still seeing some of the remnants of that today. Right? And one of the things that I notice about people today is that if we were to think back to the day after nine eleven, when everybody was just a little bit kinder to each other, when everybody, you know, treated each other like Americans, I think a lot of us look back at that with a little bit of nostalgia. Even though it was a horrible event, even though it was an event that that changed so many lives, we look back on that time with so much nostalgia. And I also think that for a lot of you who listen to this podcast, we we look back on that time, and we think about it as a time when we all had some purpose.
Right? Seeing that on TV, and so many of you went out and enlisted in the military after seeing that. I was already in the military. Right? But but I was so moved by the fact that recruiting stations around the country were were getting overrun.
So many people wanted to volunteer. So many people wanted to be in the fight. And that's something we don't seem to have today. But we can lament that all we want. We could sit here, and we can think about the nostalgia and and and wish that we had something like that again.
Or we could do what we did close to twenty years ago, and we could step up again. You see, there's a lot more uses for a man or a woman who served in the military than just serving in the military. There are holes in our cis civilian society that need to be filled, leadership holes. And it's become glaringly evident. Our constitution is continually under threat because of poor leadership, because of people who do not believe in right and wrong.
And that's not to say that that this isn't obviously, I am a conservative, but this isn't me just calling for conservatives to step up. If you disagree with me politically, but you still consider yourself an American, and you still can consider yourself able to have conversations with with me and people who think like I do, productive conversations, not fights, you need to step up as a leader too. This is both sides. This country can't survive without both sides. We need multiple political parties.
We need multiple perspectives. And I truly believe that it's those of us who come from where we come from, those of us who put our name on that dotted line after 9/11. And I'm not talking about myself. I'm just here as a little cricket in your ear whispering. I'm talking about you, people who've done a lot more than I have.
You have such an opportunity here. Such an opportunity to show the world what real leadership is. Such an opportunity to step up for your country, to shape this country for the next generation. Because if that doesn't happen, I don't know where we're gonna end up. And at the end of the day, it will not have been terrorists or Al Qaeda or ISIS that brought our country down.
It'll be our own ignorance, our own laziness, and our own inability to lead. So no matter who you are, no matter what race you are, no matter how you were brought up, I want you to understand something. We're coming into a new era right now. And I'm a big believer in the idea that it's not gonna be the Harvard grads or the Yale grads or the Ivy Leaguers who are gonna lead this country into the future because that's not where we're at. We need people who've seen real life.
We need people who understand the stakes at hand. We need people who understand that America is far more important than any single one of us. We need people who can bring us together and who can help us to hash through these differences in a productive manner. We need people who have respect for the Constitution of The United States. We need people who understand the implications of what happens if you start neglecting the Constitution.
We need leaders. We need people like you. So this nine eleven, I hope that you're holding your families close. I hope that you're thankful for what you have. I hope you're remembering the brothers and the sisters that we lost in the fight that occurred after that fateful day.
But I also hope that you have an eye toward the future and an eye toward what you can do beyond the service that you've already given. Your military your time in the military, that was a training ground. It was a training ground for you to go on and do so many big things. And if you hang that uniform up and you say, hey. I'm out.
I'm done. Well, I completely understand why you would do that. But don't let it be be be because you don't think you have a purpose anymore, and don't let it be because you think that you have nothing more to give because you do. So that's my take on this 09/11/2020, what some people are calling, I guess, could say the worst year in a long time. But to be honest with you, it's been a pretty good 2020 for me.
Alright? I have a a new job out here. I'm doing well out in Florida. I'm with the woman of my dreams, and I'm here still talking with all of you because this is what I believe is important, getting our generation to rebuild this country and to continue to make it the greatest country in the world. So I love you all.
I'll be talking to you soon. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.
Host of the Warrior Soul Podcast and founder of Warrior Soul. Worldwide trainer and nutrition coach, contributing author at Testosterone Nation and Muscle and Strength.
