Anniversary of The Great Tragedy

Posted on September 12, 2004 in Citizenship Courage & Activism Terrorism

Today marks the most tragic episode in American history, when we as a people reacted to the terrible events of 11 September 2004. In hindsight, I see that there was no stopping the war in Afghanistan anymore than there was stopping the unanimity of the Congress — save one — after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. No president — not even a man as dovish as George McGovern or Jimmy Carter — would have hesitated to send our troops to stop the Taliban’s reign of terror and error. Committed pacifists such as myself felt it best to keep silent except to address the hatred that brimmed over from the hijackers to all of Islam.

The awfulness of this day stems from the failure of our leadership of both parties and the American people to stop and take a deep breath before assessing what had happened and choosing a course of action. Too many people in the Congress and among the electorate did not listen when I and other like-thinking friends said “Do not give George W. Bush a blank check to do as he pleases. Do not give this to any president, general, or politician.”

Out of this came the squandering of the surplus, the deprivation of human rights, and the shaming of America by the world. Out of this came our disastrous expedition into the Iraq. Out of this came confusion and a deep division pitting Americans against Americans. Out of this came arrogance on the part of the Bush administration to stain our landscapes with toxic chemicals, corrupt our free media, sell off our commons, undermine the Bill of Rights, and squander our surplus and our Social Security.

We let ourselves down by not thinking things through, by allowing the tricksters of Big Media to spin hatred against our fellow human beings, and by forgoing our usual caution when it came to world affairs by joining in jingoism against anyone and everyone who gave the slightest hint of disagreeing with our approach to the Middle East. I saw many sane heads go crazy as they spun around in the belief that only harshness would make people respect us. Too many of us chose to support measures to beat the world into submission. And we have paid for it in derision abroad and economic failure here at home.

The anger is, perhaps, understandable. The attack on the World Trade Center shook every one of us like seeing a child being run over by a drunk driver or hearing the news that our spouse was screwing our best friend. White hot rage often leads to verbal effluence, we say things that we do not intend to carry out — “Castrate the bastard. Kill the bitch.” Usually, either our circle of friends or our own consciences deter us from addressing evil with evil. We resort, in the end, to the law, to the great compact that holds that violence shall not lead to vendetta.

Unfortunately, we were moved to blind attack against people who were not involved in the slaughter of 9-11. We did not ask, until well into the administration, why we did not see 9-11 coming and, before we legislated, we did not consider less draconian changes such as changing the procedure for dealing with airplane hijackers* instead of turning American into a place where neighbor was encouraged to spy on neighbors and uphold a freedom-stifling political correctness which invaded our private purchases and library borrowings.

On this day, we took the first steps towards giving our freedom away to a man who had no legitimate claim to the White House, an expert in distortion and a long-time cheat and opponent of fair play. We, the American people, squandered the deficit and shredded the Constitution by our failure to lead our leaders.

The only thing we can do now is change our attitudes and our actions. We must commit ourselves to undoing the damage — throwing this usurper administration out of power for a start followed by making substantial changes to the way we guard ourselves against terrorists and beginning to pay off the deficit. We have lost overtime. We are poised to lose Social Security. All because we did not rise up as a people to challenge George W. Bush to deal with terrorism in a rational manner that was not calculated merely to enrich his friends. It is time to face up to the terrorists in the media and the government. Just say No. No to the acid bath which destroys our essential freedoms, our community, and the protections on self-sufficiency which our parents and grandparents engineered as bona fide and true Americans.

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*During the 1960s, the policy evolved to cooperate whenever anyone attempted to hijack an airplane. This comes from the era when hijackers sought to fly themselves to Cuba to work in Castro’s sugar cane fields. The belief was that they would not harm the passengers if they were given control of the plane. The 9-11 hijackers knew this. The pilots followed the procedure. And the planes crashed into the twin towers.

Future attacks of this kind can be thwarted by simply keeping the crew cabin door locked at all times. When hijackers attempt to enter it (the door should be fortified), the pilot should announce that he is landing the plane at the nearest airport. Law enforcement can meet the plane on the ground. Any attempt would be over.

It would cost the American people far less in money and time than the pork barrel system put in place by the Bush Administration.

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Here is a NOVA site about why the two towers fell.