It is September 12. The day after the 8th anniversary of the demonstration of pure evil that flows through the reality of the world the way electricity flows through a circuit board. I spent a good bit of my day yesterday dwelling upon that day 8 years ago as the rain fell upon me with chilly september showers. I had hoped to actually get more out of the experience I sought, but it was disrupted and distracted by the induction of my life long hero into the National Basketball Hall of Fame and the countless beers I drank from the end of the work week until the end of my stream of consciousness. Regardless, I need to express the thoughts I was able to gather in an attempt to remember those who were lost or those who lost someone.
Much theory and speculation has surfaced in the explanation of 9/11. I have heard numerous accounts of scientific theory, conspiracy claims, conspiracy debunking, “official” statements... none of which seem to connect any sort of explanation. While we may never know what actually happened or how or why, we do have some concrete, indisputable facts that come from the result of the horrifying event that took place. Make no mistake about it, we are a different nation in all aspects of what we once were.
One fact that seems to go unnoticed in the lead up to the attacks was the fact that government agencies knew these terrorists were plotting on our soil. They knew they were being directed by an extremist organization in Yemen. They had all the information they needed to stop the attacks before the terrorists even walked through the doors of those airports that September morning. “It’s not my job responsibility” bounced off the walls of the agencies who exist solely to protect the American People. Somehow, the documentation made it’s way to the hands of the newly elected president one day as he was shooting for par on a presidential golf course. He paid no mind to the folder passed onto him as it may have interfered with his vacation plans. Who knows... maybe he did pay mind to it but decided to let it play out and let the agencies “handle it.” I’m not here to determine that.
From the moment the second plane hit the South Tower, America would forever be changed. The shock, the fear, the hurt, the anger... it took hold of us all. Our hearts began to beat harder. We felt pain and resentment. The confusion of the happenings disrupted our thoughts and that roller coaster of emotion took us on a ride we would never forget. In this crisis, political governance found a window left open and they sure as shit took advantage of the opportunity. Through the manipulation of our anger, fear, and resentment, the Bush administration was able to coax us into going along with whatever they deemed connected with the newly anointed “War on Terror,” sparking a seemingly endless crusade that has claimed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives.
Since the declaration of the “War on Terror,” we have been forced to sacrifice our freedom for security, thus rendering the rebuilding of the “Freedom Tower” quite the hypocrisy. The direct results of failed cooperation of government agencies led to the passing of the Patriot Act and the subsequent wiretapping of the American public... illegal wiretapping as we have come to learn years later. Other direct results that came from the “War on Terror” were the expansion of executive powers, the insurmountable funding for homeland security, and an eternal justification of war with any nation we cite as terrorist sympathizers.
The eternal war is what gets me. We have invaded countries for no more than political indifference but it has been spun to the citizens at home as a protection of our freedoms. Sadam Hussein threatened us no more than he ever had and he had no ties to al Queda. They found no weapons of mass destruction when they knew damn well up front that they weren’t going to find any. So we invaded Iraq for political indifference and perhaps for reasons unknown to the common man not inside the oil business or the war racketeering business. Then we have Afghanistan, which we were told we invaded because of the Taliban and because there may or may not be an al Queda strong hold. We have threatened Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Iran... I’m sure that if France had terrorists residing in their country and we disagreed with their political structure, we would threaten them as well. This is not a Christian Crusade on Muslims. This is a racket of war. Endless war with an endless budget that is handed out through no bid contracts to businesses who are politically connected (think Halliburton and Cheney). Meanwhile, the declaration of war on an extremist idea has only further fueled the enemy’s cause through the continuous occupation and destruction of their land and the unfortunate civilian casualties.
The endless budget has caught up to us as we sink deeper and deeper into a quicksand of debt. On top of the ceaseless printing of currency to help fund these wars (while devaluing the currency at the same time), our brilliant former president spoke to the people of this torn country after the attacks and told them to “shop” and help contribute to the rebuilding of morale. Never in the history of this nation were we told to spend in such irresponsible fashion during time of war. Over the course of the last 8 years, we have lived well beyond our means and we were not only provided the opportunity to do so, we were encouraged. The end result is evident every where you look these days as the recession has painted a grim picture on the overlay of this once great nation.
We have been played like a violin in the aftermath of the attacks 8 years ago. Our emotion and feelings were taken advantage of and with the short attention spans that seem to encompass the majority of American citizens, we have not paid much mind to it much like our commander in chief paid no mind to the important information that was placed between his palm and the handle of his golf club. Our new president has taken a lot of flack over the course of the last week for speaking out to the school children across the country about responsibility. How dare he demand responsibility! Has nobody told him, that is not what we do here in America... not anymore at least. Perhaps had the highest regarded man in the country spoke out about responsibility 8 years ago, we would not be in such bad shape as we are today. Instead, we allowed everything we stood for to burn in the fires and collapse with the towers.
