SEPTEMBER 11th - FREEDOM LIVES ON



On this day in 1831, Charles Darwin and Captain Robert Fitzroy travelled to Plymouth to inspect the Beagle. The Beagle, for those of you who slept through your middle school science and history classes and those Creationists out there who think we are all blood related to each other, was the ship on which Darwin was travelling aboard when he came up with his theory of evolution. I don’t want to go on a lengthy diatribe, and I never want to disparage anyone’s beliefs, so I will simply focus on the fact that evolution fascinates me. The cockroach for instance. Evolutionary speaking, that little bug hasn’t changed for hundreds of millions of years. Of course when you can survive asteroids, widespread extinction, nuclear bombs, zombie apocalypses, and whatever happened to us in the Matrix movies there is probably little need to evolve. Then look at the duck-billed platypus and tell me that some X-Men-like mutation didn’t happen when an otter, snake, and duck were all in the same lake to cause that weird freaking creature. Plus you have to appreciate Darwin for meticulously researching all this, travelling the world to find different creatures despite the vast majority of people thinking he was a nut and that we were all related. Luckily, he had the freedom to do it. Which brings me to another point.

As interesting and important as the inspection of the Beagle was, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge what September 11th has come to signify in this country. Many people, more poetic than myself, have described the importance of that day--the sacrifices that were made and the courage that was shown. So I would simply like to end today’s marking by commemorating all the men and women who lost their lives on that tragic day and give heartfelt thanks and admiration to the brave responders and survivors who have demonstrated over the following decade that America, for all it’s faults and trivial obsessions, is a resilient nation determined to overcome such a violent act of hatred and cowardice to prove that freedom cannot be blown up or torn down. Freedom lives on. And always will.

This day has been Respectfully Marked.

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