It's just a "matter of time"

"America's Sheriff," Orange County's Mike Carona, was the guest speaker at today's ceremony commemorating the September 11, 2001, attack on the Twin Towers--held at beautiful Irvine Valley College.

But the celebrated fellow was tardy, so we were entertained with song.

Diane DeVore (wife of Chuck) was on hand with fifteen or so kids who sang patriotic songs, including one, unfamiliar to me, whose chorus was "all-American, me and you." The kids seemed to enjoy that one.

Oddly, DeVore, who seemed nice, mentioned that she home schools her kids.

Perhaps she was unaware that IVC is a public institution.

Master-of-ceremonies Tom Fuentes then started things off by noting that, here in the district, "we begin our time with prayer."

Well, actually, no. We teach here, and classes never start off with prayer (with the exception of certain speech classes, but never mind). Not yet, anyway.

Trustee Don Wagner led the gathered throng of about 75 Irvineites in prayer. People were generally pretty good about it. Even those kids.

Fuentes then led the crowd through a delightful ritual evidently known as the "Orange County 1-clap," a way of identifying dignitaries (i.e., Republicans) with minimum hoopla.

The effort at hoopla-minimization was wise in view of the dignitaries.

I think Fuentes identified the original dog catcher (city manager?) of the city of Irvine. Fuentes noted that the fellow was a pal of Father Junipero Serra's.

The audience liked that one.

County Sheriff Carona commenced his brief patriotic address. He spoke of "barbarism." He spoke of the "hatred" of the 9-11 attackers for America's "values," "beliefs," and "freedoms." He talked of his young son's inability to comprehend these attacks, which occurred for "no reason."

He referred to all the time he spends at the Nixon library. Evidently, he gives speeches there a lot.

We're safer today, he said, than we were six years ago. Not going into specifics, America's Sheriff said that there've been "a lot of attempts" to attack us since then (?), but they've been thwarted.

The crowd emitted a palpable sigh of relief.

Still, added Carona, it's just a "matter of time" before we are attacked.

I heard a yelp.

America's Sheriff spoke of our growing complacency with each year that separates us from that terrible day.

He spoke of heroes: our soldiers abroad, our firemen and policemen at home. We in the audience, too, he said, were "heroes." After all, we showed up for this event, demonstrating that we "care and believe."

I have no idea what he was talking about.

Still, the weather was nice, the crowd was pleased, the kids were having a good time, and we got out of there before the traffic got too bad.

“You are truly the heroes because you care and you believe. You are what's going to make a difference in America and what's going to keep America safe. You are what makes America great.”

--Sheriff Mike Carona