Name that tune

Do you remember, the way we used to dance
In September

Sometimes I wonder. We're six years on now from 9/11/01 and whatever amity there was in the wake of the attacks, it's gone now. MoveOn.org has made it clear, running an ad in the New York Times yesterday that referred to Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, as Gen. "Betray-us." Petraeus is up on Capitol Hill now, getting berated by Tom Lantos. And just about all the worthies in Congress on the left side of the aisle are on record as saying they don't believe that anything Petraeus will tell them is worth hearing.

Try to remember, the kind of September

I remember that day very well - I don't think anyone will ever forget the sense we had that the world had changed, irrevocably. But now, six years on, the politics have become so poisonous that we ignore the general who is actually fighting the war, even as Osama bin Laden reappears on video, coming on like Noam Chomsky in a turban and a jet-black Santa Claus beard.

And now the days grow short/I'm in the September of my years

Do you get the sense that the days are growing short? Are we letting our short attention spans and our addiction to spectacle, our devotion to 1080p technology and our iPhones and all the other gadgetry in the array, all well beyond our imagining only a few years earlier, distract us from maintaining the steady gaze necessary for eternal vigilance?

Fantabulous night to make romance, 'neath the color of October skies

Or are we putting it off for next month? Should we?

Turn up your radio

Now the caravan is on its way.