A couple months ago, (November 26th, to be exact) as in my usual morning routine I am now into, I woke up about 2 in the morning and turned on the coffee, and then the television and watched reruns of Leave it to Beaver, and My Three Sons, while enjoying my early, early morning first cup of coffee.

As I did that, I did a little channel surfing and stumbled onto the showing of the movie, Miracle, the story of the 1980 U.S.A. Olympic Hockey team and their quest for the gold medal which they had waited four Olympic competitions to recapture. This version of that story, which starred Kurt Russell, was like the earlier making of the movie, Miracle on Ice, which starred Karl Malden, making some wonder why they’d make two movies that turned out to be virtually the same thing, with the same outcome, but there have been other movies, in other genres, with historical relevance made in the spirit of education and patriotism. It also allows those who watch, to remember events of the past, which include the sad, tragic events of the past, so we can learn from and honor those who lost lives in service to country, and the “happy ending,” motivating, inspiring movies that give us feelings of hope and pride. That might be why they make two, or more, non-fictional/historical movies in many genres with the same storylines, characters, and which most everyone who live(d) in this country knew, and will/would always remember where they were, when the outcome occurred.

On September 11, 2001, our country was attacked by terrorists in three different locations of importance to our nation’s government.

One was the World Trade Center in New York, a place of economic importance to our country. A second attack took place on the Pentagon, the center of our nation’s defense, and a third attack happened in the sky over Stoystown, PA when a skyjacked plane headed for San Francisco, rumored to be rerouted toward a federal government legislative building in our nation’s capital, but crashed to the ground about 20 minutes from Pittsburgh, PA, as a result of an intervention by a group of passengers. Just like the outcome of the Olympic Hockey Team, the attacks of our country in those three locations created a memory in most everyone in our country who will always remember where they were when this tragedy occurred.

During the events that led up to the Miracle on Ice, and in the aftermath of 9-11, our country was overcome with conflicting emotions, one occurrence being jubilant, and one occurrence being tragic. Ironically, both occurrences created overwhelmingly intense feelings of patriotism that lasted for a while. In both situations, chants of “USA, USA,” and the songs of Toby Keith (Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue), Alan Jackson (Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning…), Lee Hazelton (God Bless the USA), and later, Coffey Anderson (Mr. Red, White, and Blue) and more, were heard resonating and reverberating in many places throughout the country. More people seemed to become more solemn as the Star-Spangled Banner and God Bless America were played, sung, and aired more and more in various forms of media, or at various other sporting events, concerts, and special activities, where the chants of “USA, USA” were heard in many more places than just Hockey Arenas. America during these times seemed to under-go an attitude adjustment. Americans seemed to become closer, friendlier, more compassionate, more sensitive to each other’s feelings, more respectful of our country, and then almost as fast as all of this happened, it seemed to come to an abrupt stop.

Yes, we still echo the chants of “USA, USA,” at Olympic and International events, and we’ll hear it vociferously, these next 16 days as we watch the 2026 Winter Olympics (officially known as the XXV Winter Olympics and commonly called Milano Cortina 2026), but it isn’t enough. We need to be prideful and patriotic regarding our country much more often than every couple of years, or just for sporting events. We can’t let the memories of those who perished as a result of what happened on 9-11, be forgotten as more people who remember what happened that day keep passing away, leaving fewer, and fewer, to teach it to the children who weren’t even born when it happened.

Along with that, and sadly seeing what’s happening today in our country, which is no longer equitable to schoolyard/backyard “he said – she said” squabbles, our political gap has considerably widened, resulting differences to become violently more intense, which is both frightening and embarrassing to our country in the eyes of much of the rest of the world. We can’t keep fighting amongst ourselves with all the bickering, controlling, conniving, blaming, threatening, coercing, intimidating, and uttering untruths to discredit those who may not think as others think, or build up people’s egos, and it isn’t just coming from one direction. There’s a little, and a lot crossing, and/or coming, from that “combat” aisle, and from down our governmental streets, that’s faded and weakened the once strong bond of patriotism and pride coming after the 1980 Hockey Team Victory, along with actions/outcomes occurring at Pearl Harbor, on D-Day, following successful and even tragic Space Flights, 9-11 recollections, and stories coming from veterans’ groups and legions. All those, which have been kept alive with Memorials, Remembrance Days, parades, personal true stories and documentaries of historical events, movies like Miracle, and Miracle on Ice, both which I’ve watched a hundred times or more since ’80, which still give me goosebumps and teary eyes, are now somewhat fainted reminders of those patriotic feelings, as are some of the prideful feelings I once had of the inspirational (Iwo Jima-like) photo of Firefighters raising the fallen American Flag at the WTC, a picture I’ve seen many times. The sounds of those patriotic songs played since that fateful day, which also used to put a lump in my throat and well my eyes have lost some of their volume. All this seems to have been replaced by the Civil War-like happenings in our country in these times. The second half of the title of this narrative states, “How Things Have Changed.” A good follow-up to that would be, “What Happened?, Why?, How?, but if we asked those questions today, the answers, reasons, and/or blame, would be as far apart as Infinity and Beyond are from this planet on which we live.

So, how can we bring the sharing of compassion, strength, friendliness, sensitivity, and respect, along with pride and jubilation, back to the first half of this narrative’s title, which possibly was once our most meaningful cheer in this country, “USA, USA?” Maybe, it can start by changing this present Civil War-like atmosphere, to a country of Civility and Respect among all!

Naïve and idealistic as it sounds, it’s better than thinking often that it’s the end of our world as we knew it.