On
9/11
September 11, 2002
By Democratic Underground Readers
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The sky above me today is as hard and bright and blue as
it was one year ago. The air carries that same hint of crisp
autumn that lies in wait within the yellow becomings on the
green leaves shivering in the breeze outside my window. It
seems, somehow, utterly terrifying that the weather today
is a mirror image of what it was a year ago. I might not be
so afraid if it were cloudy and raining. Bad things happen
on sunny days. This is one of the superstitions that has taken
root inside me over the last twelve months.
Sometimes the world can turn inward on its axis. Nothing
seems to change - the surfaces remain as familiar as the pattern
of veins that sit close to the skin of your right hand. Yet
that inward turn looses a wind as ferocious as the growling
throat of a hurricane. You may batten down your home as best
you can, but that wind will come and tear all that you love
and cherish up from the foundations and fling it, shattered
and bent, far beyond sight.
The world turned inward on its axis one year ago today. With
the exception of the smoldering ruins in New York, Washington
and Pennsylvania, everything remained the same on the surface.
The attacks were pointed, aimed with brutal accuracy at symbols
of our might. Beyond the charnel houses those targets became,
the nation was unmarked in any physical sense. The wind blowing
from that inward turn was a psychic one, howling in our minds
and souls. The only indication of damage to be found beyond
the targets rested uneasily in the anguished, furious, terrified
eyes of your neighbor and your spouse and the face that stared
back at you from your bathroom mirror.
A week after the attacks, I found myself playing a game as
I waited for the bus to work on the heavily-traveled street
by my house. I called the game, "Count The Flags." I stood
there and tallied how many American flags I saw on car bumpers,
windows and radio antennas. My wait for the bus lasted less
than ten minutes, but I managed to count 163 flags before
I was finished.
This we called "Unity," and there was strength in that. America
had been attacked, and the citizenry roused itself to display
the colors on every flat surface and pole available. It reminded
us of the police officers, firefighters and rescue personnel
whose unbelievable bravery - they ran between falling chunks
of building and human bodies, ran up stairs choked with fleeing
survivors, ran without pause into their own deaths, because
it was their duty - made us all humble and awed and proud
to be Americans. Shirts and hats bearing the FDNY or NYPD
symbols could be seen on every street and in every town.
Two days after the attack, I summoned the strength to go
out for the evening. This was no small thing; the shock of
it all was nowhere near over, and everyone was bracing for
the other shoe to drop. Some friends and I went to the House
of Blues in Harvard Square to see a jam band named Umphrees
McGee play. Before the show started, the building's fire alarm
began to bray, and the effect was dynamic; Once upon a time,
a fire alarm was an annoyance to be ignored until the flames
reached your table, but on this night everyone was up and
out in thirty seconds.
When the fire trucks arrived and the firemen clambered down,
all of us in the street roared and cheered and clapped for
them. When one of them mentioned that their whole crew was
leaving the next day to help with the cleanup in New York,
there were more cheers and even some weeping. Several people
embraced the firemen before they pulled off into the night.
That's how it was a year ago, and for the most part, that's
how it still is. You don't forget the kind of heroism we saw
on that terrible day. True heroes are hard to come by.
You can still see those flags today. They are weatherbeaten
and torn, frayed and tattered. Sometimes you'll find one in
the gutter on the side of the road. There are two metaphors
to be seen in this. The first describes an America that was
attacked and wounded, but still stands strong and proud and
free despite the damage done. The second describes an America
falling to pieces in the wind of that axial turn, murdered
by inches. The latter, sadly, seems far more appropriate.
In the aftermath of the attacks, George W. Bush told us that
the blow had been struck by evil men who hated our freedoms.
We were told that the perpetrators would be captured dead
or alive. Our cause, we were informed, was a crusade. The
nation became familiar with the names Osama bin Laden, Taliban,
and al Qaeda. We all quickly reminded ourselves where Afghanistan
was on the map.
As all of this unfolded, Muslim Americans were beaten and
murdered in the streets, their stores vandalized, their places
of worship desecrated. Christian leaders laid the blame for
the terrorist attacks upon feminists, gays and the ACLU. The
rest of us hunkered down and waited for daylight, anticipating
the siege but not sure if the walls would hold. They had,
after all, so thoroughly failed us on that bright September
morning.
The months that have passed whisper a tale almost too bleak
to be repeated. The Attorney General stood before Congress
to defend the incredible revisions he shepherded into the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and claimed that anyone
who questioned these actions was either aiding terrorism or
was a terrorist themselves. Today, Federal authorities can
arrest and detain you without the benefit of a lawyer or a
trial if they decide you may be supporting terrorism. These
authorities can also enter and search your home, tap your
telephone and computer, all without a warrant or notification
if they suspect you of supporting terrorism. By Ashcroft's
definition, supporting terrorism means questioning the reasons
for annihilating two hundred years worth of constitutional
protections.
Here is the tally: Government may now monitor religious and
political institutions without suspecting criminal activity,
thus abrogating our freedom of association. Government has
closed immigration hearings, holds people without charge,
and resists public records requests, thus abrogating our freedom
of information. Government has levied veiled and not so veiled
threats ("Watch what we say." - Ari Fleischer), and has accused
many who criticize the administration of treason, thus abrogating
our freedom of speech. Government may monitor conversations
between inmate and counsel, and may in many cases deny access
to counsel, thus abrogating the right to legal representation.
Government may hold people without trial, and deny them the
right to face their accusers, thus abrogating the rights to
liberty and a speedy trial. This list goes on and on.
The war in Afghanistan has left more innocents dead than
the attacks upon New York and Washington combined. That body
count has become so extreme that the rank and file in Afghanistan,
once grateful for the destruction of the Taliban, has begun
to turn upon us in fury. The Taliban regime was shattered,
and al Qaeda was scattered, but Osama bin Laden and the henchmen
who aided him are still at large. In seven months, between
September 2001 and March 2002, bin Laden went from Public
Enemy No. 1 to a man of such paltry significance that the
Bush administration almost completely refused to speak of
him in public. The mastermind remains alive and free while
hundreds of Afghans rot in detention centers, uncharged and
without trial.
Americans, in the days between then and now, have been introduced
to a new kind of terrorism. The names Enron, Harken, Arthur
Andersen, Halliburton and WorldCom became familiar in every
household that had a retirement stake in the market. These
entities dropped massive bombs on Wall Street, burning profit
reports and accounting balance sheets into worthless ash,
ruining with their shameless criminality the dreams of millions
of Americans. We have only begun to reap the whirlwind spun
by these white-collar McVeighs.
We don't hear much about them these days, though. The word
on everyone's lips now is Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. We are preparing
to attack, unilaterally and pre-emptively, another nation.
No proof has been offered that Iraq poses a threat to this
country. No proof has been offered to tie Iraq to the September
attacks. NATO, the European Union and the entire Arab world
stand vehemently against any attack. If we go in there with
no UN mandate and against the will of the world, we will create
the very battle - Islam vs. the West - that Osama bin Laden
was hoping for. We will guarantee another day of mega-terrorism
on our shores. Along the way we will kill tens of thousands
more innocent civilians, and lose many American soldiers.
Someone once said that when you stare into the abyss, the
abyss stares back, and it is there that you discover your
nature. We have stared into the abyss in the last year, and
have found our nature damning. Covert American dalliances
in Afghanistan created, funded and trained the groups that
became the Taliban and al Qaeda, starting in 1978 with Zbignew
Brzyzinski's "Afghan trap" that drew the USSR into invasion.
The decisions of that time birthed Osama bin Laden. Covert
American dalliances with Iraq birthed Saddam Hussein, whom
we armed and funded during the Reagan administration despite
his use of chemical weapons on the battlefield against Iran.
We made fast friends during the Cold War, and turned on them
even faster. That they have turned on us has spawned our common
woe.
There once was a dream called America, and it was beautiful
indeed. It spoke loudly of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. The dream was never fully realized, but the promise
implicit in its creation swore that, some day, every day,
we would stride in strength towards that more perfect union.
So long as one living person holds that dream in their heart,
it will never die. Even the horrors of the year we have passed
are not strong enough to destroy that dream, and no force
from beyond our borders could ever hope to end it. The dream
has no borders. It lives in the soul.
The only ones capable of destroying the dream called America
are those who live within its warm embrace, those who are
motivated by greed and power to act in ways guaranteed to
bring fire and ruin down upon us all. The only ones capable
of destroying that dream are the citizens, the average folk,
who surrender their right to governance to those who value
petroleum and profit above life and liberty. The dream is
not dead, not yet. But we walk along the keen edge of a knife.
One slip, and we shall fall. America will remain, but the
dream will be no more.
The world sometimes turns inward on its axis. It can be turned
again. Two hundred and twenty six years of democracy cannot
be undone in one year, unless we the people let it happen.
Another autumn is upon us, its hard blue skies reminding us
of everything we fear to speak of. As we remember the year
that has passed, a year that has brought so many wrenching
changes, we must remember the simple words of Mother Jones.
Remember the dead. Fight like hell for the living.
— William Rivers Pitt
As callous and as shocking as this may seem to some, 911 did
not change my life. I grieved for the loss of life and I still
hurt for the families of the dead. Yet, MY life was not affected.
I lost no love ones. I lost no friends. I lost no acquaintances
or co-workers. My life went on as usual for the rest of the
day. But only for the rest of the day.....
What did change my life was the aftermath. How my country,
my government and some of my fellow Americans reacted has
affected how I live my life. If that sounds selfish, so be
it.
Even though a horrible, unspeakably horrible, tragedy took
place on Septemeber 11, 2001, the far greater travesty was
everything that happened afterward. From the rounding up of
"Arabic-looking" people to the deaths of and death threats
to "Arabic-looking" people by their fellow Americans.
From the Patriot Act, to the "you're either with us or against
us" rot spewing from an un-elected leader's mouth. From the
"we're all Americans - NOW" flag waving {what were we all
before?} to the dangerous nationalistic fervor that proclaimed
dissent was somehow "un-American" and "treasonous." That asking
questions and demanding answers made you unfit to live here
and even worthy of death in the opinion of some.
My government has chosen to dishonor those that died by using
their deaths in a grab for power that erodes the rights and
civil liberties of all. To speak nothing of the shameless
profiteering on the graves of the dead by turning that day
into a media and marketing frenzy.
I'll remember September 11, 2001 always. I'll see those painfully
gruesome images in my mind forever. But I will not - nay -
I can not lie and say "that day changed everything." For it
did not.
I still believe in the founding principles of my country.
I still believe in freedom and liberty. I still believe in
justice and equality. I still believe in the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights
And the only thing that could be more tragic than either
911 or anything the Bush regime has done would be for me to
stop believing - to stop fighting - to stop asking questions
- to stop demanding - from my government:
Answers. Accountability. Truth.
— Solly Mack
The recent onslaught of media attention has brought mixed
emotions from me. The sights and sounds of that day echo from
both my mind and what is being pushed as "news". I don't want
to hear the screams, the roar of the Towers coming down. I
don't want to feel the tears well up in my eyes; simply, I
don't want to relive that day.
But I also want those responsible captured and dealt with.
One year later, no Osama. Why am I not surprised?
I've seen changes I thought could never happen in this country;
and they've happened quickly, almost without thought, and
certainly without much discussion. In one year, Liberty has
taken a beating that could not have been inflicted for over
200 years.
We've survived everything thrown at us, from the inception
of the nation. We will survive this as well. Where my fears
lay, are the internal enemies of liberty, not the external
threats.
9-11-01 showed us we are vulnerable to attack, as we always
have been. It also showed us how we can, as a nation, instantaneously
come together to protect ourselves, and when brought together
by calamity, be it natural or otherwise, we are a good and
decent people, dedicated to protecting that which we hold
precious.
My thoughts go out to those who lost so much that day. But
it is time to move on. Just as at Pearl Harbor, the memories
are there, the sacrifices known; but the nation moves on;
hopefully together towards a brighter horizon.
— Robert Funke
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