Seven Years On

Today I was making my usual rounds driving through downtown and then to West Nashville. I first noticed flags on the State house and the Snodgrass were flying at half mast. Then in West Nashville, the fire station, several other buildings that were flying the American flag, all were at half mast, and then it hit me. Yes today is the 11th. Seven years on, I think I had gotten to the point back to where I was on my birthday in 2001. I was aware it was Sept. 11th today but I didn’t think of it as anything special. I would like to take a moment out of this blog post and would like to just say, for the record I think it’s a bad idea to call today “Patriot Day” (JR71 October 25, 2001). Written in my Franklin Covey organizer are the words, clear as day “Patriot Day” You should take this day and not be blatantly and blindly patriotic. You should take a moment to honor the people who died on this day. We already have Memorial Day, but something similar should have been used. I can’t blame the congress too much cause at the time everyone was caught up in all the patriotic fervor and jingoist, fascist mentality that has died out some but not completely to this day.

Back to my birthday, (10th Sept. 2001) The weather was wonderful and I was living in the moment having a nice meal out to celebrate my 26th birthday. The next day I went in to work early to finish up some correspondence courses from Denver. The break area served double duty as a break area and a staging area – for picking up equipment etc for the day. The door leading from the offices to this area had a small square window at eye-level. The TV in this room was facing the same way in which I would be walking out so – when looking through the window I saw people’s faces, and not the TV. I thought nothing of it at the time cause they watched anything from Cinemax to Pay per view movies to ESPN, Judge shows, and the news. I had been de-sensitized to all the sensationalist news reporting (worker gets stuck on crane, LAPD high speed chase on the 405 etc etc) this time was no different, yes everyone was fixed on it. I turned around and saw that the first tower had been hit. I stared at it for a minute and then right then, live on air, I saw the second plane hit the second tower.

I went that whole day listening to the BBC as best I could. I did not see any more coverage cause I worked in the field. So I was in denial when they told me that the towers had both collapsed. People like to use terms like “unbelievable” all the time. But I literally could not believe what just happened.

The weeks and months – years following was a huge blur of “patriotism” scaremongering and vengeance. Yes we were a wounded nation and the world opened their arms to offer support. We found ourselves in a scary situation, an atmosphere of paranoia and fear. The inappropriately named “Patriot Act” was shoved down our throats and fast tracked through congress. In the fall of 2002 Bush & Co. pleaded with the American people why we needed to go to Iraq. You had Colin Powell sit before the UN –probably against every fibre in his body – holding a vile of Gold Medal Flour – making the case that Saddam may have anthrax. $577,000,000,000 and 95,300 deaths later, with no end in sight and a sinking economy you have to ask yourself. Was going into Iraq the right thing to do? You have to remember the initial premise for our invasion was out of fear, fear of things like anthrax and weapons of mass destruction which have never turned up. Was this good enough reason to invade a secular nation – albeit a brutal dictatorship that at least kept the religious fundamentalists in check with an iron fist. The domino effect thereafter was the spawning of fundamentalists in droves, to give birth to future 9/11’s?
The cause of the Iraq invasion then shifted in conservative circles to “we are doing it for the people” – reminding us all of the gassing of the Kurds and the heavy handed approach against the Shia Muslims. What we forget though, is that these atrocities happened when Iraq was an ally of the U.S. and the WMD’s they did have were U.S. made.

You have to go back and figure out why they attacked us instead of vowing revenge. On this 7th anniversary of that darkest of days in our country’s history, let us not forget that the plan and execution of the terrorist acts of 9/11 was a faith-based initiative. If you can imagine a world with no religion there would be no 9/11. Without our undying support of the brutal middle east policies of the State of Israel none of this would have ever happened. When you have missiles and bombs killing innocent people in Lebanon that may have an Israeli flag painted on them, but all say “Made in U.S.A.” You have to kind-of put two and two together.

I see the same disturbing rhetoric and same old arguments (Alleged WMD’s) spewing from our government again this time regarding Iran. We the American people have to step up and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We can not allow this to happen any more.

There are several conspiracy theories perpetuated by internet films such as “loose change” et al. I don’t think 9/11 was an “inside job”. However I do believe that Bush & Co. saw it as an opportunity to profit. Yes it was an awful tragedy. And Bush & Co. profited most from it. They got themselves an illegal war which has since cost us 577 billion dollars. The cronies being paid all tie back to the right wing special interests. KBR, Blackwater, Halliburton. At the cost of human blood.

Take a few minutes to sit and reflect today at the past. And of how that was the day where it all went wrong.