On 9/11
September 11, 2002
By Democratic Underground Readers

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I am at the point that even though I am still sad about 9/11, I also don't care. I think it has to do with the media constantely harping on this day. It was a big deal but now with war looming, I wish people would let this day lay quiet and respect those who died. I still get scared when I see pictures of the WTC. America has changed and I hate to say, not for the better.

My thoughts to those who were lost on this sad day.

— Rene Moon

This year has been a tough year for everyone. We have all had to deal with our post-9/11 feelings in one way or another. For me this year has been one of disbelief, anger, hyper-vigilance and fear. As a teacher on the morning of September 11, 2001 it was my duty to maintain a calm exterior. Many of my students are tied to Langley Air Force Base and as a result feared for their homes, families and even their pets. Their world was shaken to its core. I can only hope that they could not see my fear as we prepared to leave for the day. You see, I drive through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT, to us locals). Oh, I have options. I can go through the Monitor/Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel (the 3M) and then through the Portsmouth Midtown Tunnel. Needless to say, I was afraid. I felt a little better while the state of Virginia had state troopers stationed outside the tunnels but they're gone now.... I sure hope they'll be there on Wednesday.

I have also, become "hyper-vigilant". From the time that I got home from work on 9/11 until now I can not stop watching CNN or MSNBC. It is not the tear-jerking stories of people who received phone calls from those trapped in the towers. I can't take hearing about people calling to say what had just happened, calling to say "I love you", calling to say "Good bye". I watch the news constantly because I think to myself, "Maybe it won't happen again while I'm watching or maybe I'll catch the warning signs that the Bush Administration didn't catch before." I know that this is unrealistic because even our own investigative agencies were treated with less respect than Cassandra.

Lastly, I am angry. I am angry because our little bubble has been burst, we are now never to be free of the possibility of terrorist attack. I am angry because the Bush Administration ignored the warnings just as they intended to ignore the rest of the world. I am angry because Attorney General Ashcroft has used our darkest hour to try to invade our privacy and deny us our Constitutional rights. I am angry because the Bush Administration is holding Afghans in Cuba who have no clue as to when they will see their families again. I am angry because there are people being held in this country who aren't allowed lawyers and who are being prosecuted using "secret evidence". I am angry because the Bush Administration is willing to alienate our allies and our Congress to attack Iraq to settle Daddy's score. I am angry because many of my fellow Americans have proven themselves to be remarkably intolerant.

But mostly I am angry because I just want the United States to be what we say it is. Land of the free, home of the brave. Please do not forget that Benjamin Franklin said that: "Those who are willing to give up essential liberties in order to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety."

— Kathy Wilson

History is going to be brutal to us.

This is what keeps coming into my head lately. This weekend I heard Scott Simon on NPR's Weekend Edition describing the war in Afghanistan as one of our "achievements" for this year. His voice sounded just as reasonable, compassionate, modulated, and thoughtful as it always does. It made what he was saying that much more terrifying. Perhaps he believes that by killing thousands of civilians, turning entire villages into smoking heaps of rubble, destroying what was left of normal life, turning scarcity into famine and famine into starvation, and installing a regime that can't even be called a puppet government because the strings are really all there is to it, we have made the world a better place. I personally believe that someday, someone will stumble across that broadcast in the archives and feel the same chill I felt when I came across an essay printed in an 1840s issue of the University of North Carolina student literary magazine in which the writer explained, in a polite, rational, well-reasoned argument, why slavery was a good thing.

At least that's what I hope.

There is going to be a lot of talk on Wednesday about honoring the victims, the fallen heroes, the police and the firefighters and all the civilians. The truth will be, as the truth always is, that nobody knows what the dead want from us. The dead cannot speak for themselves, and so every politician, journalist, and ideologue in this country will be killing himself trying to speak for them. I can't, and don't want to do that. I can only do what I would want people to do to honor my memory; and that is to try to prevent my own government from bringing more death into the world.

Still hoping for peace, even after a year like this,

— The Plaid Adder

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