Listen, today is the anniversary of 9/11. I know we who were alive that day cannot and probably never will forget that day, but it is time to face our grief and move on. I don't mean that we should not honor that day in our own way, nor do I mean that we must pretend it never happened. That is stupid. No, I mean we need to move on, that we need to realize it is a day of tragedy not unlike Pearl Harbor, and now is the time to deal move forward beyond that day.
What we as a country need realize is that we have lost the war those terrorists started if we continue to live in fear of those animals. We need to remember that this is America, not the USSR, and our response to the cowardly attacks 11 years ago has driven us to a country more resembling that of Lenin/ Stalin, not Washington/ Jefferson. We cannot allow ourselves to get angry that the Today Show interviewed some reality tv whore rather than observe a moment of silence- because if this day really meant anything to the powers that be, it would become a National Holiday.
If the sacrifices of those innocent victims, the brave emergency response personnel, and my fellow veterans who aren't alive today mean anything to you, then I urge you to reconsider the path this country is heading down. I am not going to say one politician is better than another, nor will I inject any party politics into this. What I am about to say is in regards to policies that are un-American, and practices that are an affront to everything this country was founded upon. In short, I strongly believe that we've allowed the terrorist to win this battle because we've allowed fear and hatred to dictate our opinions. I believe this corruption is due to the fact none of us has satisfactorily dealt with the feelings of, well, there really isn't a word for what we felt that day. Let's use the words "astonished horror mixed with extreme anger with large dollops of grief plus the instant and overriding wish for retribution the likes of which has not been seen since God visited the Pharaoh's Egypt for several days" to describe it.
So, those policies and practices then. Patriot Act, TSA, SOPA (and like legislation), NDAA, the suspension of Habeas Corpus, the execution of US citizens without trial as an authority granted to the government. The creation of a hyper polarized police state where the conspiracy theorists are more often than not correct nowadays. Mass murders of non combatants in Iraq by Federally employed mercenaries. Torture of detainees, including US citizens. Restriction of travel and elimination of illegal search and seizure rights. Increasing the taxes of the poor and middle class while granting unprecedented tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%. These are the policies that when one reads history, one finds nothing good comes from it. Much of this stems from unresolved issues from 9/11, and until the people of this nation come to terms with the simple fact that fear and anger have led to us to deny ourselves the very basic rights that made this nation the bastion of hope for the world, the terrorist will have won. Until this nation, from Joe the Plumber to Bill the Mega-Billionaire, stands up and throws out these charlatans we have as politicians out on their ears, the USA will continue to march toward the inevitable doom this course takes us.
