On never forgetting, and links

Eleven years is a long time, long enough to make us not think about 9-11 as much as we used to. It's human nature, and it's not unforgivable.

There are still a bunch of crazy nut jobs on this Earth who'd love nothing more than to blow up one of our cities and make what happened that day seem minor by comparison. And as amazing and as admirable a job we've done of preventing such atrocities from being inflicted on us for more than a decade, the threat still exists.

That's one reason to take a moment today to reflect on that day and what it meant. Another reason is to think about victims whose families still haven't rediscovered the normal that those of us unaffected by that day managed to achieve after a while.

Just take a few minutes to think about it, pray about it, read about it, whatever. Just never forget.

Here's a must-read on the topic.

"84th floor

West Office

12 people trapped"

It is not these words alone that change the narrative of Randy Scott's final moments. The other content on the note is a dark spot, about the size of a thumbprint. It is Randy's blood, and the clue that eventually enabled the medical examiner's office to trace the source of the note through DNA tests and deliver it to his family a decade after he apparently tossed it from the 84th floor.

A few links about the games we play:

In Alabama, columnist Kevin Scarbinsky says Gene Chizik will get hammered for going the distance with Kiehl Frazier.

And here are some numbers that have to startle Auburn fans:

Sophomore Kiehl Frazier looked bad in his second start at quarterback? He hadn’t looked all that good against Clemson, and he didn’t get a lot of help in either game.

The Auburn defense made the junior Tyler Russell look like the senior Jason Campbell? Same defense that made Andre Ellington look like Bo Jackson.

The Auburn team walked out of its SEC opener with a double-digit defeat? In three straight, four out of five and five out of the last seven conference games, the Tigers have lost by at least 18 points.

Have poor quarterback play, spotty defense and lopsided losses become more than things to be examined at Auburn? Are they now to be expected?

The growing body of evidence would say yes.

-- This Arkansas columnist reflects on the impact of the Razorbacks' loss to Hyphen Speed.

-- In Mizzou, Gary Pinkel seems to be complaining about the helmet thing.

Quarterback James Franklin is sporting a nasty purplish bruise over his left eye, the result of getting his helmet ripped off in the pile during Saturday's game. Franklin's helmet came off twice against Georgia, both times triggering the new NCAA rule that requires a player whose helmet comes off on a non-penalty play to leave the game for one play. Corbin Berkstresser replaced Franklin on both plays. On the first, Franklin said his shoulder pads got popped up over his head and knocked his helmet off. The second time, he felt a player grab his chinstrap and rip it off and yank the helmet off, too. "I'm sure our players didn't take it off," Gary Pinkel said. "And I'm sure he didn't take it off. It just happened. … Every single time his chinstrap was snapped off. It didn't just slide off. So, I don’t know what to say."

And just speechless over the latest revelations in Chapel Hill.

Wine and ... jeez.

LW