Everyone and their Op-Ed mother is writing tributes to September 11th today. In some way, it is obligatory, much like it was obligatory to let firefighters and police officers think, “in the wake of the tragedy,” that they were the very best that our society had to offer. As a somewhat topical blogger, I suppose I, too, have an obligation to write about the 5th Year Anniversary of The Day Our Innocence Died. So here’s my September 11th story.
I was sitting in an advertising agency in Beverly, Massachusetts, gathering papers for a meeting at 9 A.M. As I walked into the meeting room, one of our art directors arrived (late as always) and said that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. Not really understanding the tragedy of it, I said something to the effect of “frickin’ drunk drivers.” And then we started the meeting. A few minutes into it, someone who wasn’t in the meeting came into the room and said that another plane had crashed into the other tower. I don’t remember if we all got up at that point, or if we quickly finished the meeting and then got up, but I do remember rushing back to my desk and typing in CNN.com, only to find that it wasn’t working. Then someone a few desks over got Boston.com to work and a bunch of us rushed over there. After reading what little was known, I went back to my desk and somehow got CNN.com to come up. It was all very exciting. Then we found out that another plane had hit the Pentagon. And then the first tower fell. And then it got scary.
The CEO of our company, who was based in our Florida office, called a company-wide meeting and told us that he wanted us all to go home and be with our families. I think I was out the door before the meeting was even over. I lived in Brighton at the time, which was about an hour commute from Beverly, but my parents’ house was only about fifteen minutes from my office, so I started to drive there instead. I remember putting on NPR for the ride and hearing about Flight 93, and I remember crying.
When I got to my parents’ house, no one was there (of course). I ran downstairs and put on the TV, and not more than a few minutes later, the second tower fell. I remember crying again. Like everyone else in our country, I spent the rest of the day in front of the television.
Then five years went by. And everything we learned about compassion and everything we gained in good will was squandered by greedy, feckless thugs.
The world is a more dangerous place than it was five years ago, not because of the terrorists, who aren’t doing anything they weren’t 15 years ago. No, it’s more dangerous because the children who run this country never learned what it means to be humble, never learned what it means to be wrong, and never learned what it means to take action towards something; all they understand is taking action against something.
They are greedy, feckless thugs. They are spoiled children who would rather punch you than share their toys. And in the last five years, Americans have done nothing about them. We have hid our head in the flag and said “Please don’t let them hurt us.” And in the meantime, it is the thugs in Washington D.C., New York City, Atlanta, and Los Angeles who have terrorized us into confusion. It is the greedy, feckless thugs that we have let ruin America.
After September 11th, 2001, all of civilized society was prepared to work together to make sure that those who would rip apart the fabric of our societies would not have the chance to do so again. But in the five intervening years, our allies have turned their noses up at us. They can smell the stink of possession in our call for “freedom.” They can see the stain of selfishness in our call for “a global community.” They can feel the slime of empire in our desire to “help.”
It wasn’t Al Qaeda who did this to us. It was the greedy, feckless thugs who call themselves our leaders. And we let them. We let them be our leaders. And we followed them down, down, down. In the wake of the tragedy.
36 Comments
Couldn’t disagree more, Kyle. But today is not the day to do it. Today is a time to reflect on those who have sacrificed, and continue to give, for your right to criticize without offering alternative solutions to our past, and ongoing, loss.
Amitai
Wow.
I Just came back from a very good documentary called “Beyond the 11th” about an organization of women from MA who are raising money for Widows in Afghanistan - under the concept that they are all widows, all sharing the same pain of having of having lost thier husbands to something that they can’t understand and now have to raise their children without the love and security that their fathers / husbands provided, etc…
a very, very moving documentary that may or may not get picked up and distributed nationwide (they are submitting it to festivals over the course of the year)
Anyway, my point is that I read kyle’s post this morning and thought it a bit jarring, but not suprising - considering the source….but then after work I went to this film and I’m just really glad I did, and I’m really glad of the mindset that it put me in…and then I checked back and read the first comment from amitai…and I found myself nodding my head….
so yeah, I’m glad I was able to see that film tonight and I think that today, if only for todayy, is a day to focus (with as much empathy as possible) on those that lost….and not the growing frustration that many feel with our nation’s response….
is it time yet?
can we get back to dropping trow in the president’s empty vessel or is september 12th too soon?
recruiter… - kyle has definitely contributed to mass amounts of ideas and alternative solutions…
try the archives… - i’m sure you’ll find a few…
David, you could be right…
http://fluidimagination.com/blog/2006/04/02/this-blog-in-history/
…but in this instance, Kyle hardly leaves one wanting to look for more of what he has to say because he comes across in this post as vitriolic. If we didn’t know him better, we might not come back at all.
Amitai
Sorry if my vitriol offended you, Ami, but I had to do something with the acid inside me.
Perhaps you are right, perhaps September 11th is the day to remember those who have sacrificed, but perhaps that is Memorial Day, or International Firefighters Day, or Peace Officers Day.
For me, September 11th is the day to remember the possibility of a better world, the day to remember what it felt like for all my countrymen to be awake. And while I would like to stop there, the actions taken by the leaders of my country do not allow me to.
September 11th called the world to band together as civilized societies, to celebrate our joint commitment to the freedom of speech, so that anger and despair have a verbal outlet, not a violent one. But instead, the leader of the free world (or his mouthpiece) told Americans that they need watch what they say, watch what they do.
The violence of September 11th begged the world to remember that change should not come through violence, but through organized progress. But instead, we get the leader of the free world (or his administration) preventing peaceful assemblys.
The desparation of September 11th called us to recognize that striking out with anger and hatred is the act of barbarians, to recognize that due process is the foundation of our freedom. Instead, we get the leader of the free world brazenly flouting the rule of law.
I want to sit back on September 11th and say, Thank you for your sacrifice, but instead, I can only say, with Anil Dash, I feel as if we have failed in so many ways. All of us.
This is from the Times editorial today:
It is just plain wrong. The world is more dangerous with these people dead or captured?Abu Faraj al-Libbi , Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mohammed Haydar Zammar ,Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, saddam and his sons, and a list of others. NOw I know you are going to say that there a a hundred more to take their place, blablabla but these guys were the top guys for a reason. Their replacements will not be as good (bad??) as they were.
I’ll get into this more later but it is not this administrations, or the past or the next ones fault we are in this situation. 9/11 was planned before Bush stole the 2000 election.
Kyle - you cleraly feel much more strongly about this topic than I do. Have it your way.
Amitai
Oh, yes:
“September 11th called the world to band together as civilized societies, to celebrate our joint commitment to the freedom of speech, so that anger and despair have a verbal outlet, not a violent one.”
Tell it to the Taliban. Perhaps they’ll mullah over what you have to say.
I guess you can look at it a bunch of different ways….the five year anniversary can make you infintely more angry about everything that has happened…OR, if can be one day that you don’t feel the anger and instead put your attention on those who have sacrificed MUCH MORE than their pride in being an american.
of course, you could also look back on the last five years and be infinitely more proud as an american…there have been a lot of accomplishments in the last five years…we have not been attacked again…the feeling of safety has for the most part returned and we have sent a message (not sure how clear the message is) but we have sent a message that we are going to fight terrorism to the best of our abilities (at this time)..etc, etc….
I mean…sometimes I want to find the silver lining…call me crazy…but sometimes (to quote rick pitino) all the negativity on this blog sucks, it stinks, and it sucks…
is it wrong to try and find the good in the face of (lets say) the overwhelming bad.
Justin - I believe it is this administration’s fault that we are in the mess that we are in today. I supported the Afghanistan war, with trepidation of course, as all wars should be supported, but I did think it was the right thing to do. But the mess in Iraq has nothing to do with the events of September 11th, as even the President has admitted now.
You’re confusing the president’s rhetoric with the actual results. Sure, we’ve killed bad guys. But we’ve also had a hand in the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Are you saying all those innocent deaths were worth it? That Iraqi lives are worth less than American lives? The Iraq war did not have to happen.
Ami - the same goes for your response. The war in Afghanistan, the war against the Taliban, these are not the things that I consider to be incorrect, not the things I consider as part of following our leaders “down, down, down.”
Adam - I hear what you’re saying. I think we all want to find the silver lining, and I think we all want to give up on the negativity (which is one of the reasons there were very few politically-oriented posts over the last four months).
But you said something that kind of bothered me in one of your emails to me about the Failure Is Not An Option series. You said you weren’t commenting because you haven’t followed the story at all. I don’t understand that. Your government is in a war, a war fought in your name, and you can’t be bothered to follow the story? Because of that, I honestly consider it part of my duty — knowing that you read this site as often as you do — to keep you up to date on the news in Iraq, and to keep you thinking about the death and destruction that our country has a hand in creating.
The thing is, Adam, there is no silver lining in Iraq. The closest we can come is that Saddam is no longer in power, and that all the people that Justin mentioned are dead. But that silver lining is around the bodies of hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and the close to three thousand dead Americans. And to me, it doesn’t seem like the silver lining was worth the slaughter.
And that’s one of the reasons I feel as strongly as I do, Ami. Because innocent people are dying in our name.
Kyle I understand what you are saying, but to say that 9/11 had nothing to do with the Iraqi war is wrong. Would we be in Iraq if 9/11 did not happen? After 9/11 we were not going to wait, like we did with Osama.
Maybe the Iraqi war did not have to happen, but it did. The reasons for going in, even though they were wrong, were logical at the time. I am willing to bet 99% of the people if they were in charge would of done the same thing. (as we can tell by th 100% vote in congress to go to war)
Also where are you getting the civillian death count to be in the hundreds of thousands, its not that I do not believe you I am just interested. The highest I have seen is 100,000 but the lowest is in the 45,000 range. I am glad you brought it up because I didn’t realize it was that high. Maybe I didn’t want to know.
Justin, I apologize for the number. I had read this BBC article back in 2004, which estimates 100,000 already killed. This same scientific report was also covered by New Scientist and the Washington Post. I extrapolated to “hundreds of thousands,” assuming that another hundred-thousand had been killed in the last two years.
Apparently though, the most respected body count is being tallied at IraqBodyCount.net, which now has the number of reported deaths at 46,420. In their FAQ, they say that the number is low because they only count deaths that have been reported by two credible sources, and not every death in a war zone will meet their criteria. Also, they say on their background page that the deaths they count are only those that have been caused by the U.S. military, so they may not include all the deaths caused by sectarian violence, which I would include in our tally of civilian dead. Also, the NY Times reported that deaths that occur outside of Baghdad often go unreported.
Either way though, you’re right. It’s probably not “hundreds of thousands.”
The only thing that 9/11 had to do with Iraq was that the tragedy gave the President and the neoconservatives within his administration the political cover to do what they had been wanting to do since the first President Bush was voted out of office in 1992.
Well, I guess that when I emailed saying that I don’t respond often because I’m not following it enough, I was saying that in comparison to you (my intended audience) I think in general, I am well informed. I read the newspaper every day, I check a few interesting sites a day (this included) and I try to be well informed. I think in comparison with many people I know, I’m more well informed and I think they would agree…but there are also people that are far more informed than me. (you are one of those people, not hard to believe) You read more sites, do more research and as a result can back up almost anything you say (which is great - and very valuable to us, the readers)…but it can also be intimidating and I know you are constantly trying to get people to post but I’m sure there are people who don’t post because they think you will combat with an article that has fifteen hyperlinks disupting their opinion, and thats fine…you have more time (or choose to use your time more) in researching the war and the decisions our government is making…
I try to find a balance where I know whats going on…enough that I can have an opinion and intelligently listen to both sides and make a decision about how I feel and who I support and what I support. I think I do that…(this site helps by the way - especially justin’s counterpoints)
so when I say I haven’t been following the story…its only in comparion to those who are hyperfolllowing the story.
regardidng all of your reasons for following the war, I agree wholeheartedly with all of them…..
in a final point…there are many issues out there that are just as important as the war in iraq with innocent people dying…disease, natural disasters, etc….one could argue that we have issues within this country that are killing far more people than the war in iraq…that you, the blogger, have chosen to ignore…so lets not think that this is the only thing in the US that is killing innocent people…it isn’t…we have many other problems…
the war just happens to be at the forefront because of the media…and because it is so closely tied to politics and politicians are keeping this in the front to further their own causes….I wonder how many people starve to death every year..or die from preventable diseases…or get murdered…it may not be as many as the iraq war…but it might be close…
I hear ya, Adam. And if you want to become the resident reporter on any of those other issues, please feel free :-)
Here’s a link inspired by Adam’s comment that there are “other issues killing far more people than the war in Iraq.”
FYI: Your appendix is more likely to kill you than Al Qaeda.
Yes but your appendix doesn’t hate you. My liver on the other hand
My question is do you think that Saddam at some point would have to be removed from power? He was a bad guy, did fund terrorists, allowed them to train in his country, hated the US, had billions upon billions of dollars (acquired illegally from the civilized nations ready to stand with us) and had aspirations of having weapons of mass destruction. Should we of waited? Maybe kept the sanctions that did nothing except make him rich and starve his people.
Now to the civilian deaths, should we share the blame with the terrorists who use these people as shields? Or how about that some of these deaths have come from these same people who target civilians. Most of the ring leaders are not even from Iraq and are only there to cause havoc and hopefully start a civil war. Our people did not kill all those civilians, we failed at protecting them.
So what, exactly, are we agreed on here? Or, is it nothing?
War is bad?
Kyle hates President Bush?
Hmmm. I think that sums it up rather nicely. Good night.
Amitai
Here’s a question for ya:
Do I have a responsibility to be informed? I am a very, very locally focused person. I spend my days trying to figure out ways to make one persons life a little easier, a little richer (not in the monetary sense), a little more feeling of belonging. I don’t do this because I feel I can change the world or accomplish any HUGE goal, but because that’s (for better or worse) who I am.
When it comes to news, politics, the war, basically anything outside of Poultney…I am clueless. Not even living with “hyperinfomred Kyle” has soaked in.
This is partly an act of protest and partly a way to keep me from going completely insane!
Am I a bad person? Or, a bad American?
Justin — I’d sum it up that war is bad, and that President Bush is bad. I would take the focus off my subjective perception and make it more of an objective fact :-)
Dawn - I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t think you’re a bad person or bad American, obviously, but I do think that, to a limited extent, we all have a responsibility to be informed.
It’s strange, because from looking at the blog over the past few weeks, you’d think I spend most of time thinking about politics and the war, when the truth is that, really, the only time I spend thinking about each of those things is when they’re already in front of me, whether in an article from the New Yorker or in a segment on the Daily Show. When the news isn’t in front of me, I don’t think about it.
My “hyperinformed” state is mostly the result of enjoying the linking nature of the Internet, and the ease of having a Google search bar always within reach. I follow links, or when I come across a phrase or topic that seems interesting, I run a search for it. My “hyperinformed” state (which I would deny, based on Adam’s observation that this blog covers very few issues of our day) is really a “hypercurious” state.
So while I think we all have a responsibility to be relatively informed, I only happen to be that way because I enjoy the process of discovering information. Not everyone does.
But back to you: The fact that your “ignore-ance” of politics and the war is partly an act of protest has some social value, but let’s make it clear that you’re not protesting the war, so much as protesting the culture that has led to war.
Your focus on local issues is one that is theoretically sound, by which I mean, it is a conscious choice, a decision you arrived at after considering the options and weighing the facts. In short, it is an informed decision.
Do I think you should pay attention to news about the war and about what happens on the national political scene? The answer is yes, but it’s not about me. It’s about you. And you have decided that staying informed about events around the globe has less priority than staying informed about events within Poultney.
Which is why it’s so great we live together. You tell me what’s going on around here, and I tell you (when you ask) what’s going on out there.
We all know that the daily show is a fake news show right? Nobody can really take what is shown there and make it 100% true the same way you can not take what rush limbaugh says as 100% true. They all have agendas that can get in the way of the truth.
I’m offended by how softly (and with kid gloves) kyle handled Dawn’s question…
When I say a similar thing, I get this:
“Adam - But you said something that kind of bothered me in one of your emails to me about the Failure Is Not An Option series. You said you weren’t commenting because you haven’t followed the story at all. I don’t understand that. Your government is in a war, a war fought in your name, and you can’t be bothered to follow the story?”
I guess thats what you get when your not having sex with the blogger…
………anymore
Justin, you’re still my first, still my favorite.
Sweet. Kyle two thing that have nothing to do with.
One-is the finding of a gigantic amount of oil (biggest in 100 years and the US has the rights) in the gulf of mexico a good thing or bad thing.Gas prices down(already they are and it will not be active until 2010), having our own oil supply vs the downgraded need to come up with alternative methods for power.
Also http://www.slate.com/id/2149566 this which I agree with. HBO sunday nights own TV. The wire, deadwood, ect.
I forget how to post shit.
“nothing to do with what we were talking about” is what it should say.
Why doesn’t CJ’s computer have a Dashboard?
PS: That last message wasn’t from me, but from CJ, who was sitting at my computer. Sorry about that.
CJ - Go buy Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. And then you will have Dashboard like my computer.
Now, where were we? Ah yes, the Daily Show. Yes, Justin, we are all aware that the Daily Show is “fake news,” but we are also all aware that within its fake news, there is an awful lot of truth, perhaps more than you’ll find on the nightly news.
Second, the oil thing. Instead of answering, I’m going to write a post about how you all can post shit.
Thanks, the daily show’s aganda is pretty much to make people laugh at republicans and they do that very well. My worry is that people watch it and take what they are saying as fact when in some cases it is a highly edited segment made to be funny. Just like I fear people listen to conservative radio and take that as fact. I am one who really does not trust the far reaches of either side, and most of the people in between.
I think I am a moderate republican, which means I believe in everything the democrats do on social issues but like a smaller government rather then a big one. Maybe that makes me a moderate democrat. Actually I do not like either party.
I think adam just called me a whore, non?
oui!
If being a whore is wrong….