It has been five years since terrorists attacked the United States, killing over 3,000 people by hijacking commercial airplanes and crashing them into buildings.  They may have also caused a Cher Farewell Tour extension, though the Senate Subcommittee findings on this remain inconclusive.

A lot has transpired since then.  The U.S. invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban (mostly) and sent al-kada (hey, everyone else gets to make up a spelling, I figure let's start using an easier one) into hiding for a while.  Later, the U.S. invaded Iraq, toppled Saddam Hussein, and found more terrorists with whom to fight.

In other developments, Congress made American Idol the cornerstone of President Bush's "No Child Left Coherent" Program.  SARS narrowly replaced Michael Jackson as the largest threat facing the CDC.  The Dixie Chicks decided to simplify future tour plans by eliminating their southern fan base.  Paris Hilton refused to leave her stupidity up to people's imagination.  Dave Barry took what is turning into a really long break from writing a weekly column.  Katrina re-arranged New Orleans and much of Mississippi, though Mississippi hired the wrong press agent in the aftermath.  Martha Stewart went to the big house.  John Kerry failed to reach the White House.  Lance Armstrong won his 800th Tour de France in a row.  Janet Jackson's breast opened a MySpace account.  Inflation adjusted gas prices rose 55%, causing Americans to seek even larger vehicles.  People without Ipods were forced to live in leper colonies built on the south sides of each American city, and Pluto lost its planetary status. 

It has been a busy five years.  One thing that didn't happen was another terrorist attack on American soil.  Some say that is proof that the "War on Terror" is working, while others claim it's because all the terrorists have been waiting in line to get into LAX since October of 2001.  One thing is certain:  If we have not been able to make it impossible for terrorists to ever again attack us using commercial aircraft, we've at least made it damned inconvenient.

Other than that, very little is certain.  For example, one person will tell you that Saddam Hussein was directly involved with the attacks on 9/11, while another will say that we were not actually attacked - the whole thing was part of an elaborate conspiracy more complex than the fake moon landing and JFK assassination theories combined.  Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan coined a popular saying, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but Teddy Kennedy has taught his dog Splash to guzzle gin!"  No wait, that's not the one I was thinking of.  It was, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."  Like many catchy phrases, this one sounds great and isn't true, at least not in politics.

When is the last time opposing politicians agreed about the facts?  The dueling choruses at each end of the extreme drown out whatever harmony might be found in the middle.  Republicans and Democrats alike can't find an issue for which the overriding concern is not party advantage, it seems.  

The political cynicism pervading America finds its root in the reality that we all do get to have our own reality.  Our leaders, from top to bottom, have shown us time and again that they will lie to us, whether for personal gain, our own good, some higher goal, or hubris.  This undermines our ability to trust what we hear from one side of the political aisle or the other, or even in the rare instances when the two speak as one.  It's not as if we can look to the media to sort this out for us.  The trend to opinion based reporting continues, with a splash of wholesale fabrication thrown in for good measure. 

We sorely need to re-establish some value for Truth.  Do we want Truth?  Can we handle the Truth?  Do we tell the Truth, and demand it from others?  Until we answer those questions in the affirmative as a society, we'll continue chasing the prettiest lies (in the eyes of the most beholders).

If we were to demand the sort of stand-up behavior from our representatives that we demand of our friends and family, who knows what we could accomplish.  When I look around at the people with whom I live, work, and play, I find all sorts of integrity.  Come to think of it, though, I'm not mad enough at any of them to send them to Washington.  

Still, America is full of honest and even heroic people, and we deserve that to be reflected at all levels, and not just in our government.  And even through my cynicism, I continue to believe that the majority of my representatives are trying their best, and doing what they believe is right most of the time, even if it seems like they get an awful lot wrong.

In the end, I'd take the worst scoundrels in American political history over the type of people who perpetrate terror.  We really do have something special here, folks.  Let's live up to it.