The 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States reminds us that our country has – always has had, always will have – external enemies who despise our culture of freedom and seek to destroy it through violent means.
That's an unfortunate reality, but it's a good thing to be reminded of. We should always be grateful for the blessings of liberty that we enjoy and mindful of how swiftly we can lose them if ever we cease to be protective of them.
What we lack is an annual event to remind us that our nation also has internal enemies, who likewise despise our culture of freedom and seek to destroy it, albeit through nonviolent means.
They hamstring us with legislation and regulation. They undermine our customs and traditions with lawsuits and propaganda campaigns. They broaden, distort, and invert the definitions of things until we forget what is true and begin to doubt that it is even knowable.
However salutary its original intent, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has long since become, in the hands of liberal administrations, an engine for suppressing the creative energy of America.
As a candidate, Barack Obama told us he would use the EPA to destroy the coal industry. As president, he's trying to make good on that promise.
What he didn't count on was anyone standing up to him and fighting back. But the coal industry and the states it calls home are taking the battle to him.
In August, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and 11 of his peers in other states filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging this rogue agency's authority to issue standards of performance for existing power plants.
Now, they filed a motion to expedite the process.
Whether it turns out well or badly, this lawsuit should remind us that threats to our liberty can exist not only within our borders, but within our government.