Dorothy Anne Seese hit the nail on the head when she said: "Two towers fell and the federalization of America took less than 48 hours to fall into place. People and governments do not react to truly unexpected events that quickly."

Before the dust had settled on New York City we declared war on any nation that supported or harbored terrorists like Osama bin Laden and later the Al Quida despite the fact that the United States of America had obviously just harbored nineteen terrorists for an unknown length of time, trained them to fly but not land large passenger jets, and even renewed their visas six months after they committed their suicidal evil deed.

In less time than it could have been written, Congress passed and the President signed the Patriot Act giving police authority to snoop and intrude on Americans without search warrants and do so anywhere anytime, but concentrating first on airports.

On October 8, 2001, less than one month after the attacks, President Bush signed Executive Order #13228 that formed a new office of Homeland Security.

When a few individuals, including some in Congress, began to question the government about who knew what and when, the administration stepped up its activities to throttle the subject and bury any inquiry that, in all probability, would have been another whitewash anyway.

In less than a year, we backed out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) without leaving something better in its place. We opened the door to using space militarily and resumed the old Reagan "Star Wars" program. In a complete reversal of foreign policy President Bush declared a "first strike" initiative and singled out Iraq, a country we fought once before and have embargoed for ten years, as the first target for an inevitable "pre-emptive defensive strike" where the only questions are when, how, and do we go it alone. Guilty until proven innocent has become our mantra of justice.

Without ever questioning why anyone might hate us enough to commit suicide in the 9/11 attacks, or that our imperialistic tentacles might have had anything to do with it, the nation that both invented and used nuclear weapons of mass destruction has decided who may and who may not possess them and has adopted a shoot first and ask questions later foreign policy to back its opinion. In fact, we have adopted the Israeli version of immediate retaliation that has worked so well for them.

On the home front, President Bush has ordered the Justice Department to look for loopholes in the 1886 Posse Comitatus Act. We are in the process of reorganizing all phases of government information under the new Homeland Security office. We've federalized baggage handling and inspections at airports with some 30,000 new federal employees. And most upsetting of all, the Justice Department is developing a "Tips Program" that will ask citizens to report "suspicious activities" of their neighbors in much the same way Hitler's Youth Movement had kids turning in their parents.

In a not too subtle attempt to lend credence to the Tips Program, the media is focusing on near daily child abductions that are actually below last year's levels but illustrate the value of "Amber Alert" tips.

And we are still searching our own military stockpiles for someone who sent deadly Anthrax laden letters to members of Congress and the media.

After thousands of Americans contributed funds to help the families of World Trade Center victims, and the Red Cross tried to pilfer some of these funds for themselves, many families have elected not to draw on this money or, more properly, not to give up their right to sue the airlines. No doubt, on the advice of their lawyers the families want the option of going for the deepest pockets and have yet to realize that the deepest pocket of all may well be our own government.

President Bush now requires these families turn over all information gathered, domestically and from foreign sources, to the Justice Department or the new Office of Homeland Security. The families are complaining that this is often the information they need to make their cases in court and vainly object to giving it up.

Throughout all of this, we have an American public that would just as soon pretend that it isn't happening to them but at the same time finds it more and more difficult to ignore the fact that their lives have been changed forever just as they were told—one day, or was it one hour after the attack?

We've seen the false economy bubble burst. We've seen retirement savings invested in stocks bid up to three or four hundred times what companies were worth suddenly disappear. We've found that many companies falsified statements or cooked the books to deliberately mislead investors and to raise their stocks in the bidding. And we want revenge on insiders who knew this was happening and took advantage of it for their own greed. But we do not yet blame the government for doing the same thing with its trust funds and reported surpluses, most of which always come from our retirement money.

We've seen neighbors lose their jobs, go on relief, and end up working at anything they can find just to make ends meet and only to be told that changing occupations is normal nowadays. We know that people with jobs are working harder to keep them by proving their worthiness while those in ivory towers marvel and try to impress us with the fact that "productivity is up."

We know that when things get tough anyone with common sense reigns in spending, tries to reduce credit card debt, gives up luxuries like travel and vacations, and tries to concentrate on family essentials. We expect that from everyone except the government. We suspect that the government doesn't give up a damned thing but simply plunges us deeper and deeper into debt while telling us that it's "the responsible thing to do."

The fact that half the nation's wealth may be concentrated in one, two, or even five percent of the population is too abstract for many to comprehend, but we know exactly what it means when we hear that the average baseball player makes $2.3 million a year. And when we hear that people like Katie Kurick are salaried at $14 million a year, we start to wonder what news readers like Paula Zahn, Bill Hemmer, and Wolf Blitzer must be pulling down to entertain us with their staff's version of the news. Obviously, we are relying on pretty members of the oligarchy to keep us amused and informed, to bring us opinions from themselves and from cherry-picked experts with an occasional small exposé thrown in for appeasement.

Finally, on November 5, 2002, a minority of the American people, and especially new immigrants, will drag themselves to the polls to put their stamp of approval on a two party system that no matter how they vote guarantees more of the same. An oligarchy hell bent on establishing a New World Order with their successes at home and questionable moral values as the example for the rest of the world to follow.

This production is trying to become the longest running success story inside the Beltway with an enormous backdrop of well paid performers vigorously waving their flags in appreciation.

And all along the producers of this great spectacle, the American people who paid for it, thought it couldn't be done. Not in the land of the free and the home of the brave.