Sep 08 2006
9-11
Ok, as the fifth anniversary of 9-11 rolls around, as well as the fifth time Bush is politicizing the hell out of it… oops ….pssstt..hey, 9-11 happened on YOUR WATCH, George, why don’t you remind us a little more of that…., and I’m noticing something is different this time around, at least in the media. The looking inward and soul-searching that has been so lacking from this discussion is slowly creeping in, as this article in the latest issue of Time illustrates. There, as in other places, people are starting to wonder how we might have acted differently. Part of why this hasn’t happened sooner is simply the passage of time helps us put things into perspective better. Part of it is also, as someone noted in a great blog entry that I read but now can’t remember where, is that the way Bush ‘led’ the nation immediately after 9-11 in a sense robbed us of our own collective experience. He set the frame on how it was to be, why they ‘hated our freedoms’, etc., not giving us our own space to process the information. Now that the rest of the country is starting to realize how full of shit he was and continues to be, it’s finally catching up.
Now, I don’t know how common my reaction was to 9-11. Not to sound cold, but it really didn’t phase me all that much. It was just another typical work-from-home day, until I turned on the TV that I had at the time and watched it unfold. I was definitely glued to the tube as everyone else, I was horrified at the loss of life, but I sure as hell wasn’t scared. I was certain there was going to be an attack in Hollywood later that day, seeing how they struck the financial and military symbols, I figured they’d go for the most obvious cultural one, too. I remember thinking, ‘Whoa, we must have really pissed someone off. The chickens have finally come home to roost.’
The fear did start to sink in, but it wasn’t about my safety. I was fearful about what our government would do, and what our people would do. As I started to see the bullshit hype and praise heaped upon Bush, 90% approval rating and such, while knowing what a moron he was, well before that, I got really scared. It was then that I realized that those planes knocked the critical thinking skills out of the brains of a good portion of the country. When they’re comparing a man who can’t even form a complete sentence to Churchill, you know something’s screwed up.
And what’s been nagging at me lately, looking at how people continue to behave, is how unbelievably immature this country really is. A lot of us crapped our pants on 9-11, whether right or wrong, and somehow it turned into shit-for-brains. I really don’t understand it. Granted, I wasn’t surprised by 9-11, considering how we behave on the world stage (not justifying it, either), but I was surprised it took so long for something like this to happen. I’m certainly not shocked that *gasp* people might hate us. But when you’re constantly fed the ‘we’re #1′ crap everywhere you go your whole life, combined with a wide streak of anti-intellectualism and total disinterest in world affairs or anything not related to sports or celebrities, I can see where the above said pants-crapping came from.
I’m encouraged by a lot of things, lately. Bush’s let’s-have-military-tribunals-overseas-and-withhold-evidence-from-the-defendants scheme was shot down today by none other than fellow knuckle-dragger Lindsey Graham. There are more and more signs every day of the Republicans going down in an electoral bloodbath, as more ’safe Repub’ seats fall into the ‘toss-up’ column, even in places like Idaho. California is passing a major global warming initiative. And everyday, more and more people are figuring out how unbelievably full of shit George W. Bush is. So there’s a lot to be hopeful, but not complacent for.
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