The day before 9-11 Bush was merely a bumbling buffoon and we had taken huge strides towards lasting peace. We could travel with minimum hassle or delay to almost anywhere in the world, our freedom wasn't questioned it was just something we had protected by our constitution. Hateful rhetoric was called out or laughed at, crazy antics of preachers were pretty much ignored.
In a few horrific hours on one day in 2001 a few determined people turned our world upside down and an incompetent administration had ignored the warnings. In a few short hours we once again became a war like nation determined for revenge, fear ruled the days and years to follow this fear bred more war and laws that restricted our own liberty.
In the name of this horrific day we passed restrictive laws on our own people, threw habeas corpus in the bin, we kidnapped, tortured, justified wars of aggression and hate was thrown at anyone who questioned our actions. All in all we became what we despised the day before; a whole new hateful rhetoric was given voice in the days that followed. One sad day in September we lost so much as we fell into the trap of our own fears.
There is no doubt that this day effected our nation to its core, it numbed our thinking giving neoconservatives the opportunity they had desired since their first whiffs of power under Nixon and Reagan. They could now scream about our exceptionalism, justify any war for our freedom, expand our imperial power and nobody could question our right in so doing.
I do not believe the vile people given so much air time since this tragic day [I'm not going to mention them here as I'm fed up of all the publicity they get] would have become so mainstream without the events of this day 9 years ago. They have not allowed us to heal but continually driven the rhetoric to depths previously unplumbed. As Gail Collins pointed out in the New York Times a few days ago we have handed over the megaphone to our 5% of crazy people like a certain preacher in Florida, its time we turned the volume off in the MSM.
This day is poignant and still traumatic to those who lost loved ones on that beautiful September morning that soon became our bleakest national memory. We must take it back by stilling the hate and fear it generated since these very motives drove that tiny group to murder in the first place.
Would the tea party and the rabid right given such a free rein in the MSM, or even have been listened to outside their traditional markets without the events of this day, I find that hard to believe that we would have. We are better than this and it's time that we showed the world that we are.
It is time once again to get back on track to what the vast majority of us were brought up to believe liberty and justice for all, and not just Americans. For too long have we allowed our fears to distort our better judgment.