9/11/06

From Firedoglake -- How Did We Get from 9/11 to Iraq?:



From Dependable Renegade, Up on the Roof:

On September 11, 2001, I was sitting in my apartment on the border of Chelsea and Greenwich Village, reading my email before going out for a run down to Battery Park. I was in the middle of returning a message when I heard the scream of plane engines overhead. As a New Yorker, you tend to tune out most of the sounds of the city, but this was so loud and so close that I thought, "this can't be good." (more)

Shakespeare's Sister:

I've been sitting here thinking exactly what to say about the five-year anniversary of 9/11, and I realized there's nothing I could say about how I'm really feeling that wouldn't be crass. The truth is, I'm angry. I'm angry that it happened, I'm angry about the immediate response, I'm angry about the long-term response, both domestically and abroad, I'm angry that there are people who would happily do the same thing again, and I'm angry that my feelings make me, in the eyes of the administration, an abettor of terrorism. I've been angry every single day for the last five years, and today is no different.

And that's really all I can say.

Remembering the Trifecta, at The Agonist, who dug up an older story to remind us all:

. . . . Professional stand-up comedians know that Sept. 11 jokes are radioactive. Not even the bravest have tried to turn the deaths of some 3,000 people into a laughing matter. But President Bush has forged ahead anyway. Bush has now been telling the same, spectacularly tasteless joke to a variety of mostly Republican audiences as part of his stock stump speech . . . .Bush appears to give "trifecta" a sort of rueful, ironic meaning. But therein also lies the morbid edge: After all, Bush -- who in the weeks preceding the tragedy faced mounting questions about his ability as well as his legitimacy, all of which vanished afterward -- is possibly the only American for whom Sept. 11 was indeed a stroke of incredible good fortune. However, the real problem with the joke is that it is a complete falsehood. (read it all)

Joe Bagent on Madmen and Sedatives:

. . . . Some days however, change does seem to be afoot, as it certainly must be, given that change is the world's only constant. A majority of Americas now disapprove of the war in Iraq. Just three years ago when I started writing from this town's taverns and churches, working people therein absolutely loved George Bush. Now they have returned to their normal state of political apathy, seldom speaking of Bush, but with one difference -- they no longer approve of his war, and express disapproval generally in the form of grumbling. They grumble because television has given them permission to do so, through its constant touting of polling results expressing "dissatisfaction" with the war. Being "dissatisfied" with something, a war in this case, is more in accordance with their programming as consumers, not citizens. They will never get permission to be really pissed off, much less pissed off enough to burn anything down. . . . (experience the whole thing)

Firestarter5 says it with a bumpersticker (which Blogger will not let me upload at the moment), and Blue Wren in verse.

John Micek on where he was, and where we have gone since then:

. . . .But there in the sadness and the silence, we vividly remember thinking that there was a quiet hope -- that this might finally be the opportunity for us to get it together as a species and transcend the petty (and ultimately meaningless) differences that separate us.

Of course, there were those who felt otherwise -- as we've since seen.
And this morning, we wake to a nation -- and a world -- that's as polarized as it's ever been.

We use artificial labels (gay/straight, liberal/conservative, Christian/non-Christian, Republican/Democrat, legal immigrant/illegal immigrant) to define ourselves away from others, instead of recognizing all that we share -- notably, common DNA, our hope in our children, and, of course, the fact that we're all stuck on this rock whether we want to be or not.

So, instead of remembering the sadness of that day this morning, we're instead going to remember the hope we felt in the quiet that came after it, and the opportunity we had to finally get things right.

And we will pray that we somehow find our way back to it.

Because if we don't, then those deaths will have truly been in vain. . . . (there's more)

Ol' Froth wonders, as do we all, Where's Osama?

The Rittenhouse Review on why their phones will go unanswered today:

I tire now of those who want me, and us, to remember where we where then. I'm sorry, but it doesn't matter where I was then, and the same holds for the vast majority of us. Look, if you weren't in the World Trade Center -- trying to get the hell out -- or in the Pentagon or on one of the planes that crashed, or were one of the first/second/third responders to those sites, or you lost your spouse/partner/parent/child there, really, what difference does it make where we were? You lost, I lost, they lost. Most important: They -- the They, they -- lost. They are dead. (Read it all)

PSoTD on The Saddest Day of the Year:

We mourn the loss of so many innocent souls on September 11. But as time goes on, it feels like we're mourning the loss of our country's health as well. We shouldn't accept it as permanent. We have to find a way to get better as a nation. What we're doing is not working. After five years, we have to start trying some new strategies. And in order to do that, we have to accept new leaders. Our nation, more than anything, needs hope again. Today it seems that hope is flickering, an old candle greatly in need of replacement. We need hope that shines brightly like a roaring bonfire, beckoning all to warm themselves at the edge. We need leaders that can inspire such hope. (There's more)

Bernie simply suggests that we Google "failure". As do I.

I Live in Delaware County suggests viewing "9/11: Press for Truth". As do I.