"The reason I don’t despair is because this attack happened. It’s not a dream. But the aftermath of it, the recovery is a dream realized. And that is Martin Luther King's dream. Whatever barriers we've put up are gone even if it's momentary. We're judging people by not the color of their skin but the content of their character. You know, all this talk about "These guys are criminal masterminds. They’ve gotten together and their extraordinary guile…and their wit and their skill." It's a lie. Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters, these policemen and people from all over the country, literally, with buckets rebuilding. That's extraordinary. That's why we've already won. It's light. It's democracy. We've already won. They can't shut that down. They live in chaos and chaos… it can't sustain itself. It never could. It's too easy and it's too unsatisfying."Yeah, it's the day after. But this year, I just cannot get myself to mourn/remember/whatever 9/11. Not because it wasnt a horrible tragedy, but because Republicans have so successfully co-opted it and rebuilt the frame work around it so that it is no longer about a vicious criminal gang's attack on innocent civilians, but rather a political morality play with Republicans valiantly wearing the white hat.
Today there was a march on Washington to demand the absence of a public option for health-care. Glenn Beck created the 9-12 organization for the purpose of whoring out one of America's most awful days in the service of it's least generous citizens, and today it's being used to attempt to deny health care to the nation's most unfortunate residents.
Then I read Stewart's words and remember that the after effect of that disaster was that all over America ordinary people came together as equals in order to set things right, only to be submarined by a group of cynical politicians for the financial and political gain of a wealthy few. These few took the deaths of thousands and the cooperative efforts of millions and shit on it, lit it on fire, pissed on it to put out, then threw it away like a used diaper.
Yesterday should have been a day when I proudly proclaimed myself an American, instead I can only remember it as a day when a handful of foreign fanatics knocked America to its knees, and handful of domestic criminals used the opportunity to steal our wallets and make us afraid to leave the house without a gun.
That sickens me, and makes me ashamed, and I dont know what I can do about it; most of all, though, it makes me wonder what happened to the America I grew up believing in, the one that Stewart spoke of? Are we really all so weak that we cant take a punch without it rattling our brains so much that can no longer think for ourselves?
2 comments:
So let's politicize 9/11, forget it, and set demise to our wishes of stomping the living shit out of the Taliban and bin laden?
After all it was your ilk who denied us from getting bin laden in the first place.
You never could proudly proclaim yourself as an American because look at what you stand for.
Go fuck yourself. My "ilk" had nothing to do with the failure to capture bin Laden. Bin Laden's whereabouts were known early in the war in Afghanistan, and a decision was made not to go after him. Bush himself said bin Laden was "unimportant". The idea that a few peace protesters (and until the invasion of Iraq, I had no sympathies for them) could have changed the direction of any decisions made by the the Bush/Cheney imperial presidency is ludicrous. Any failure to capture bin Laden can be lain firmly at the doorstep of the White House of the time, just as almost all failures of government for the last eight years can be lain at the feet of the party that ran on a platform that government doesnt work, and the fools who voted for such a party in their own self-fulfilling prophecy.
"What I stand for" is a country where the American dream is for all Americans, where business does not come before its citizens, and where politicians do the will of those who voted for them, not those who funded their campaigns.
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