On what likely would have been a cold, crisp day in March of 1775, 120 men packed into a small church on the east side of one of Virginia’s more unassuming towns, Richmond. There they were discussing how the colony should respond to the provocations of the Crown, specifically regarding the presence of troops, taxes, and closed ports. It was at this meeting, after long deliberations, that one Patrick Henry, a lawyer and plantation owner, coined the phrase “Give me liberty or give me death!” — a phrase, unbeknownst to him, that would become the animating spirit of America still 250 years later.
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That spirit was tested in the fall of 2001, when 19 men hijacked four planes in hopes of punishing the American people and striking terror into the heart of America’s great governmental and economic cities, a day that changed how Americans view themselves and how they view the world around them.
The architect of these attacks, Osama bin Laden, laid blame on America, arguing that he was justified in his jihad against Americans on the grounds that American capitalism and imperialism brought oppression and misery to the people of the Middle East and North Africa. An unfortunate lie that is still being parroted today by many Americans, including Hasan Piker, an online influencer and friend of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who once stated that “America deserved 9/11.”
Bin Laden and the terrorist attackers also clearly pointed to their Islamic beliefs as a primary reason for their attacks, but somehow 25 years later their religious motivations go unmentioned. Islam of course is not only a religious ideology but a political ideology as well — one that spread through conquest and conflict in contrast to Christianity, which spread through the self-sacrificial martyrdom of its founders.
Obviously, bin Laden’s idealized picture of Middle Eastern politics before American interventionism does not pass the smell test. Countries, tribes, and families have ripped each other apart in this region for generations, with the first Persian Gulf War and the clan warfare that overtook Mogadishu in the 1990s being just a few examples. This region has been spilling blood over petty sectarian conflicts, resources, and religious fervor long before America got involved in any real way. So why is it that so many Americans believe they were attacked for their ideals? Because, simply put, they were.
American excellence, derived from its sense of liberty, meritocracy, and individual rights, is the envy of those whose ideologies are dwarfed by its ability to get the best out of people. What makes America so special is that it was founded by men who wanted to be free and, with that freedom, forged a civilization that allowed people to become whatever their will could make them.
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America was attacked not because of the evils it perpetuated throughout the world, but because it is a shining beacon of light that exposes the fraudulent religious and political philosophies of cultures that do not share its values. America could not be overcome through trade, conventional warfare, or the pen, so it needed to be overcome through subversion and violence.
Since that day we have watched as some Americans hid from the spirit that animated their forefathers while others rejected it outright, instead embracing the siren song of resentment. A majority of Americans less than 30 view socialism in a positive light, and 39 percent of them say that political violence is acceptable. These two ideas crashed into one another, leading to the unfortunate murder of Charlie Kirk, a man whose ethos was defined by the same spirit that animated Patrick Henry 250 years ago. American culture is struggling as of late not because of its first principles but because it’s accepted the lie that its first principles were evil.
As a Canadian I love America because of its principles. Those same first principles that defeated the world’s strongest empire at the peak of its power. Principles that enabled the invention of the telephone, the lightbulb, and the airplane and eventually put a man on the moon. Principles that allowed free men to erect the New York City skyline, a skyline that is and was the envy of the world and the target of terrorism because of what it represented: a nation of free men who created the greatest civilization the world has ever known.
The only way to overcome the lies that have been peddled to the American people is to live out the first principles that made it great to begin with. Embrace the ideals that forged the United States and become unapologetically American again. Stop accepting the lie that America is a colonial empire founded on genocide or that capitalism is inherently evil and bad. Stop acting like the philosophies and cultures that stand opposed to what America was founded upon are in any way equal. If they were, they wouldn’t need to use tactics of subversion and terror to defeat this country, because the merits of their ideologies would suffice to do that themselves.
Twenty-five years after that tragic day on Sept. 11, now more than ever it is important to remember the words Patrick Henry spoke on that crisp day in 1775. Because without liberty there is only death, and liberty only dies when good people stop fighting for it.
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