I Forgot

I'll show my age here and tell you that I remeber way back when Steve Martin was THE big thing in the late 1970's he had this part of his schtick called "I forgot". You know, I couldn't repeat it but it was one of those gags that would call for him to repeat as the punchline to ridiculous set-ups that "I forgot." It was funny way back then, anyway...

Today I was struck by something the President said to a group of soldiers and their families at fort Benning Georgia:

And that's what we're here to celebrate today. On September the 11th, our nation saw firsthand the destructive vision of a new kind of enemy, and once again the men and women of Fort Benning answered the call to protect our country from that enemy. You know, I knew that right after the attacks, the American psyche being what it is, people would tend to forget the grave threat posed by these people. I knew that. As a matter of fact, I was hoping that would happen so that life would go on. But the fortunate thing for this country is that those who wear the uniform have never forgotten the threat. You understand the stakes.

So there you have it: we forgot. And he knows better than we do because he hasn't forgotten the stakes. Boy, now that he mentions it, I guess I do have this recollection of the stakes but it must be a bad dream:



Picture from here.