Today is September 11 - obviously. Six years since what we have just started calling “The Attacks”. For some reason I was thinking about this last night, and wondering if anyone was going to do some big commemorative type posts. Apparently that’s only done on years that can evenly be divided by 5.
Anyway, I was thinking last night about the fact that it has been six years. Six freaking years. And yet… we’re still in Iraq. We’re still being told that this decision and that decision is all done because “we better not forget 9/11!”
Sadly, I found myself thinking last night about how horribly things have gone wrong in the last six years. I found myself thinking that maybe, despite all the flag waving and vigils and really great songs about standing together… “the terrorists” have in fact won. In some ways.
Do you remember after 9/11 when the president stood up and said that if we let them change us, change who we were, change our way of life… that “they” would win?
I do. And I remembering being afraid at the thought of how quickly people would toss away their civil liberties in the name of fear.
I look around now and realize that those attacks have changed this country, in many, many ways. In ways I am not proud of.
Do you remember a time when there was no such thing as a color coded terrorist alert system? Do you remember when “The Terrorists” made you think of that time at the Olympics when masked men held people hostage… and not of some ominous army that was “out there” waiting to “strike” at any moment? Do you remember when people joined the military for college money, and no one begged them not to go? Do you remember when people were open about what a horrible job Bush was doing, and no one said it made them weak or unpatriotic - and no one in a million years would have believed that we’d elect him AGAIN?
Do you remember when the Constitution meant something? When we fought over things like Health Care and Social Security and the future of OUR country - and no one was a freedom hating Nazi if they disagreed with you?
I remember. I remember when we were not afraid. I remember when I was slightly embarrassed by our arrogant tourists, rather than ashamed of our arrogant politics. I remember when we felt like we had a say in our government… when the government was BY the people and FOR the people - or at least a hell of a lot better at maintaining that illusion.
I remember that. And while I cannot forget the images from September 11, 2001 - I also cannot forget how we all promised one another that we would not let this beat us. How we as a nation were better than that, as a people we were stronger than that.
And yet, it seems, we were wrong. I don’t know that I’ll go so far as to say that “they” won - or are winning. But I do think we’ve gone a hell of a long ways towards beating ourselves. I don’t even know if we ever really fought. We’ve surrendered, as a whole - to a tyrannical government, to fear, to brow beating “patriotism”.
I can’t help but think that six years after Pearl Harbor this country would have had a lot more to be proud of - a lot more worth “remembering”.
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Posted in Serious Discussions - Politics, Religion, Society
It’s days like this that make me glad that I always read your blog first in the morning to start the day on a happy, carefree note.
:whistle:
Bossy is taking a similar Avitable powder. She hates Bush too much and - just don’t get her started.
here, here, girl.
I’m curious to see what kinds of posts we will be reading today as well. Such a friggin mess, isnt it? Lets not even get me started about what those colored alerts and homeland security have meant to people outside of the parameters of US citizen, alright?
Instead, lets drink some beers, eh? :-P
I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I remember my mother standing in the living room asking my father why they even had children if it was just to have them blown up by a nuclear bomb.
We have changed each time there is a crisis. Sometimes it is just more obvious.
In the mornings I listen to a radio station where the DJ rarely talks and there are few commercials. The tag line for the station is “We play anything.”
It was chilling to first listen to a remix of “Tears in Heaven” intersperced with actual sound bites from 9/11 and ending with Bush stating that we would get those responsible for doing this…
It was immediately followed by “Peace Train”.
I nearly cried. That was enough of a tribute for me for today.
Brilliant. Few people could have said anything as eloquent as this. Seriously. BRILLIANT.
I agree with absolutely every word, letter, and punctuation point here. If you aren’t sending this post off to be published somewhere big - then you are seriously fucking up.
I was raised to believe that people could move mountains, that if we stood together we could create change. My mother endured two brothers being sent off to Vietnam and I suppose that she instilled that feeling in us without even realizing it.
I look around now and see that protesting gets you labeled as a “traitor” or worse, “one of them” and it disgusts me.
Brilliant, Britt. I don’t know a better word other than, BRILLIANT.
Yes, we are STILL in Iraq - and Osama Bin Laden is STILL right where he was then - hiding out in the no-man’s land between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I’m missing the link there…
avitable: oh whatever. We all know you start the day masturbating.
BOSSY: it’s pretty sad when people are afraid to “start” anymore… because where the hell will it get us anyway, right?
DeannaBanana: well, if you people would just stay the hell out of our country!! JEEZ!! lol
NotaGranny: and sometimes it is for the better…. and sometimes… it’s something else
FyreGoddess: wow
AmyD: well, my ‘brilliance’ seems to stop at my ability to get things published. ;-)
Mom: well, clearly mom you are forgetting about the WMD’s. That’s the acronym for it, right? It’s been so long…
I refuse to do anything except treat today like a normal day. We are STILL in Iraq.. a place I personally believe we should have never gone or at the very least be gone from by now. I know people who have been to Iraq. I know people who have lost family members in Iraq. We are doing NOTHING there that is worthwhile. Afghanistan.. that’s where Osama was doing his main thing (whatever that might entail) and yet Afghanistan is virtually our forgotten war. We’re there. We’re losing lives… but 9/11=the Iraq War to so many people. UGH.
Yeah so this was just my way of venting my utter frustration and fear that we’re STILL IN FUCKING IRAQ… and my husband will be going to Iraq in November. And I have this horrible, gut-wrenching feeling I’m a widow in the making.
I just proved the whole WWMBD (what would Miss Britt do) theory/mystique whatever it’s called — I have never voiced my widow fear until just now.
Normally, I don’t like to leave comments that just say “Very well said”, but I can’t put it any better myself, so…
Very well said.
Well, I do masturbate while reading your post, so yeah.
In a nut shell - our government works for someone, but it certainly isn’t us. They (Demoblicans - cuz they are different, but without distinction) have worked together to provide us with the Patriot Act, and the war in Iraq.
I believe strongly that, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Benjamin Franklin, November 11, 1755.
In response to that, I think our politicians - ALL of them - need abused and locked up. They deserve it… Ben said so, and that’s good enough for me.
OMG! My husband and I have talked about this exact thing since a few months after “the attacks” happened.
Oh, and I have seen several commemerative posts today. Perhaps it is the different blogs we read.
Well hell, everybody knows George Bush ordered the planes into the towers….
Well, Miss Brit..this is Amy’s mom.
I think you are in your twenty’s..right? It takes your generation to stand and let your voices be heard..no matter which side of the issue you are on. The 60’s were a time of change in this county because the youth of America rallied and demanded to be heard. It was their blood being spilled on the battlefields and the lottery system was in full swing. Change can happen when we choose to stand together and be heard…you can make a difference, I can make a difference..if we are willing to do more than bitch about how things are being done. It’s not a fantasy..this country was built on many ideals, but it is a Democracy and “We the People” matter.
Lin: God Bless you and your family and your husband..his service is not taken for granted..we wish him GOd speed and to quote my brother, ” an uneventful stay and a strong tailwind home”.
Good girl Brit!
Lin: well, I’m not sure what the WWMBD theory is… but I can’t even tell you how much my heart hurts for you. I don’t know how I would handle that fear - but I can imagine I too would be deathly afraid to vocalize it… and at the same time desperately wanting to say it SOMEWHERE to SOMEONE.
Truly, I don’t know how you do it. I remember having nightmares when the war started about someone coming for my husband, and how I would have to pack him away in a trunk or something because he wouldn’t let me stop them.
Please know my heart is not only with your husband, but with you as you wait.
y not i: well thank you. :-)
avitable: is there an Anti-Viagra pill?
I need to find it.
Annie: that is one of my favorite quotes - from anyone.
I just wish more people believed in that as strongly as they do “not in my backyard”.
Lynda: I did actually read a few - very great ones - in “later rounds” of blog reading. Mainly from people who had a more personal connection to it (especially for New Yorkers).
I suppose that makes sense.
RW: well, he IS responsible for everything that is wrong with the world today.
In fact, I have no doubt he is to blame for my recently gaping pores! Bastard!!
(and, just to clarify, this wasn’t necessarily a condemnation of Bush so much as a reflection of how we as Americans have handled the fall out)
Amy’s Mom: I know, I keep thinking about The Greatest Generation and The Hippies and all these amazing Americans before us.
I often wonder if those coming out of Iraq and such will have the strength and experience to become the next Greatest Generation.
I just wonder if the rest of us will be able to tear ourselves away from our tabloids and TVs and computers and “stuff” long enough to notice, let alone participate.
Ah, so I see you support the terrorists!
I kid.
Outstanding post, Britt. I know a lot of people who are thinking like you. It’s nice to see more people talking about it too.
Just keep thinking about them, their action, participation, belief in America is what has brought us all forward. Yes, things look bad, but that is what inspires change.
We have young men and women answering the call and coming home in boxes and disfigured for the rest of their lives. All of this and people are somehow disconnected from it, we have been conditioned to violence and therefore the shock value tends to be lost. Viet Nam was the first “conflict” that was observed during the dinner hour and knowing my brothers were there in the thick of it was quite difficult.
This is a new time and conditions and circumstances are quite different.
Keep thinking!
You said it, sister.
Moms -
Different times make for vastly different mindsets. In addition to not watching the conflict, we’re not even allowed to see the coffins of the men and women killed overseas. It’s an all-volunteer army, so no one is being sent against their will. They signed up for it is the mantra.
We’re disconnected. We’re made to be disconnected by the government restrictions on what we are allowed to see and the media decisions of what we want to see. It’s not even a choice that’s left to us.
We’re made to feel helpless and so we feel helpless. We’re made to feel powerless, even as we watch our rights and rightful power get stripped from us. And you know what the real kicker is? We’re not even as angry about it as we ought to be.
Simply, things just aren’t that bad yet.
Generation X is a jaded and cynical generation of observers. We were raised at the height of greed, hypocrisy and selfishness and it left us disillusioned. Generation Y is the epitome of hedonism and instant gratification - the first generation to have a computer do the toil for them.
We have no rallying point. not really. not that hasn’t been twisted into a paragon of administrative authoritarianism. Politics, or more specifically, politicians don’t represent us, but repulse us and leave a sour taste in our mouths. We KNOW what our country is supposed to be, but as small as Gen X is, we don’t think we’re big enough or striong enough. There’s also an apathy that’s hard to get past.
We’ve watched people fail and so don’t even want to try. We want the world to be a better place, but are eluded by that anonymous “someone” who ought to do something and still none of it feels real. Probably because we’re so distanced.
We do our part, for the most part, but it’s a small few who would even consider doing more. Our youth leaders aren’t being assassinated because we have no real leaders because we fear assassination a la MLK, JFK, RFK, Malcolm X, etc.
This is why we complain. because we feel we are helpless to do anything more.
Here’s my foreign policy: provide humanitarian aid ONLY to whoever needs it. No more of our people dying for your stupid problems. We don’t want your oil or whatever else you’re selling. No more arms sales to anyone else. You want to kill someone? Buy it somewhere else. You have an internal problem? Tough. Solve it yourself, you don’t like our ideas anyway. You don’t like our degenerate Western ways? Stop reading our blogs and watching our TV on the iPods and laptops you bought from us.
In other words, you guys are on your own. We’ll take our soldiers back home, thank you very much. Interfering in your governments? Not anymore. Figure it out yourselves…oh, and by the way, no, we won’t loan you any money either; you never pay us back anyway.
Britt, another great post! I watched right before my eyes a very close friend loose her husband fighting the war and for what? What are we doing? Iraq wasn’t our war to fight, it still isn’t…but when you have a president surround completely by “yes men” and a president who admittedly doesn’t read the papers…what can you expect? He created a mess that will take generations to clean up and probably never really be fixed … We all heard today about the 2000+ people that died that day…what about the men and women who have since then as a result of the attacks? The ones at war, for “our” freedom? Our freedom that allows the government to record our phone conversations without us even knowing all in the name of the Patriot Act, our freedom that keeps us scared because are we under yellow, red or orange today…what freedom have we been given since the attacks, what freedom have the people of Iraq been given? I want to believe the people of Iraq are better off now than they were six years ago, but even if they are better off, how does that solve anything? I highly doubt I am making sense, but hopefully you get the idea…the idea is that I agree with you.
That’s what happens when a “president’ is elected because he believes in the same fairytale as many others.
You don’t get intelligence and rational thought.
You get a Bush…
The “religious” of Iraq, the “parties of God” have kept that country from coalescing into a viable, rational, humanistic and humanitarian country that serves its people as bst as it can.
Religion has once again coopted the sane and practical, and it shows.
The great irony here is that it was the ‘religious” of the US that tilted the scales away from any kind of intelligent response to being attacked by “the religious”, and yet the religious in the US are digging in their heels, feeling “attacked”.
As long as “Faith” is used as a replacement for common sense and reason, we are all pretty much doomed to live in a pretty fucked up world.
History bears this out, over and over and over and over.
It’s sad, really…
Joefish: why thank you. :-)
Amy’s Mom: you’re right to - the desensitization. People don’t have the same gut wrenching reaction to violence and death and disfigurement.
But I thought about this comment all night last night (OK, most of the way home at least)… and am still thinking about it.
Rich: so did you!! LOL
FyreGoddess this was brilliant, and puts into words exactly I think the feelings of why our generation feels so… stuck. A mixture of apathy and helplessness and fear and… hm.
Mrs RW: of course the question then becomes… who decides who “needs” it.
Janelle: I want to believe people in Iraq are better. However, what I NEED to believe in is that somehow WE will be better off for it.
Scott from Oregon: I’m trying to figure out which way you would be inclined to vote…
Britt, I honestly think that fear is the least of it. Frankly, we could probably do with a good dose of fear, but that was what our childhoods consisted of. We were afraid of nuclear war, of AIDS, of commies, of exploding space shuttles carrying our teachers.
To speak to desensitisation, it’s not even the things on television, in movies or in video games, it’s what we grew up with.
We OUGHT to be afraid. Afraid of what our country is becoming. The country that we will soon be expected to RUN when the boomers step down and retire in great numbers. We should be afraid of what it is that we’re leaving our children, collectively. We should be worried about the physical state of the entire world and how we can ensure it sticks around for MANY generations to come as a pleasant place to live.
But we’re not.
We’re not angry, we’re not scared, we’re not motivated at all and I truly believe that the reason is that it’s just not that bad yet.
When people start being sent to fight against their will, when people start being arrested for being the wrong religion or the wrong color or saying the wrong thing, THAT is when people will really realize how bad things are.
We cope and adjust and deal with whatever life throws at us until it becomes unbearable, and then we act to change or fix things that are going wrong. But most people aren’t directly affected by what is going on. Your son or husband or brother isn’t being taken from you, it’s a path he’s chosen. Even if your phone is tapped, chances are you don’t have anything to hide.
The comparisons with the uprisings of the 60’s aren’t a good parallel. Not now. Because people were being arrested for essentially being black. Because young men were being uprooted against their (and their families’) wills. Because every night while you ate your dinner you watched atrocious things happening far away to people you knew were just like you or your brother/husband/son.
We’re not angry yet because it hasn’t impacted us as individuals. We’re not afraid because we don’t see anything to fear, and growing up during the climax of the Cold War, we KNOW what real fear is.
If/When it gets bad enough, we’ll do something. Believe that. Otherwise, we’re just going to watch what happens… and judge.
God I wish that wasn’t so unbelievably true…
One last comment here Brit ( you caught me on a day I was not teaching…History..go figure).
It is intersting to read the comments that your post has inspired. Everyone is thinking and sharing now. I had no idea that your Generation felt “stuck” and “helpless”. That’s very interesting. Seriously.
Do you think the students of the 60’s weren’t scard? They were scard and angry, and yes some went about it the wrong way, but at least they did something. They made their voices heard and those at Kent State, made a Nation stop dead in their tracks. They felt helpless as they watched their friends, brothers, boyfriends,and husbands’ birthdates come up in the Lottery System. The reality was Sign up, be drafted or go to jail…talk about being scard and feeling helpless. Then you serve and are rejected by society. It was rough and mentally dibilitating for many.
Yes, we now , so far, have a volunteer Army, God forbid this thing escalates further and we bring back the draft.
Should that happen, I think you would see the
demonstrations of the 60’s return.
For the record, I am deeply proud of our men and women in uniform, God bless them. For the majority it is more than signing up for the benefits it is about brotherhood, honor, what makes this country great. My brother is a retired Marine, who served in Viet Nam and lost many friends, was wounded and thank God came home to us. My cousin was an AirForce pilot who was shot down over Loas, and remains an MIA. I support our troops 100 %. I hate war, and all of it’s politics and the innocent victims it claims.
THanks for making us all stand up and take notice Brit..good job!
I know it’s been a few days, but yesterday something came to mind. In past eras when our country was at war, the general population also sacrificed and we felt more connected to the sacrifice of those with family members at war.
Yesterday i heard that Oil has reached a record high of $80 a barrel… Where does the money go that we use to fill up our gas tanks??? It goes to the middle east (too much of it) and what do they do with that money? They use it to fund attacks on our soldiers and our civilians…
I don’t ask this question as a condemnation, but rather as something to really think about it… are we committed enough to protecting our country and our military to make large changes in our oil consumption? If they don’t have the funds to build the weapons in Iran that are used against our military, will we get them home sooner? Are we investing in the very thing that is injuring and killing our brothers/sisters, sons/daughters AND our national security?
Annie, that’s an excellent point, but unfortunately, one that speaks to American entitlement. I can’t help but be reminded of how John Edwards recently said that, if he were elected president, he would ask Americans to stop driving inefficient vehicles like non-hybrid SUVs.
The outcry was incredible. People started screaming things along the lines of “Who does he think he is to tell me what I can and can’t drive.” Problem is, he was asking people to make a sacrifice, not demanding it. In fact, he wasn’t even doing that… he was suggesting that he MIGHT ask.
People don’t want to give anything up, and I think that’s all the more reason we should. It comes back to things not really impacting us and not seeming real. The second you ask people to sacrifice ANYTHING (be it their lives, their livelihood or their chosen method of transportation) they are outraged.
It seems like a whole lot of people think that We the People shouldn’t be impacted by the things that our government does. And, for the most part, we’re not. At least not to an extent that we realize…
I remember the world before the color-coded terror alert. It was less of a joke then.