Thoughts on the Eleventh Anniversary of September 11th

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For every American who was on the planet eleven years ago today, September 11,2001, is one of those days like the day when President Kennedy was assasinated, where you remember graphically and explicitly where you were.  Every American has a personal story about the day and the event.  Some of those stories involve the pain of personal loss and others involve moments of unexpected heroism.  None of us can forget the days and weeks afterwards as our national consciousness changed and together we mourned our losses.

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Who could have known at the time, as people from all over the country arrived to help dig through the rubble for bodies, and messages of condolence poured in from around the world,  that eleven years later we would be a divided, squabbling nation screaming at each other like children on a playground not only about how to steer the ship of state, but also about what our communal responsibility to each other as fellow citizens and fellow human beings is about.

 Congress and Wall Street, both mired in corruption, serve up alternative visions of the future and scramble for votes and power.  Billions are spent on a political campaign that is the modern equivalent of ancient Rome's " bread and circuses" while  children go to bed hungry and families sleep in their cars.  1% of the population controls 90% of the country's assets and the 99% are occupying Wall Street and the Internet.

So I am happy to hear that both President Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney have decided to honor this eleventh anniversary of September 11th, a day that altered our national consciousness forever, by putting aside the bitter campaign rhetoric and stepping away from the drama just for a day.   Both campaigns will pause today, for a day of remembrance for the victims of 9/11.

The pause in the political hostilities should give us all pause and help us remember that eleven years ago, for just a few weeks and months we really were one people, sharing grief, courage and hope but never fear and despair.  On this eleventh anniversary of 9/11, in the middle of the most divisive political campaign in our history, let's try and remember what that was like, shall we?

Partytime in America. Osama Bin Laden is Dead

 revelers in New York's Times Square

I find myself watching the footage and photos of Americans celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden with mixed feelings. On one level I am celebrating with them, but on another level  the partying leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Don't get me wrong--I  am crying no tears for the mastermind of the carnage of 9/11, but there is something about the dancing in the streets that makes me uncomfortable.

The demonstrations outside the White House and at Ground Zero  are like what would happen if we won a big football game or Olympic sporting event. They almost trivialize the nihilism and fanaticism and pure evil of the philosophy bin Laden represented.  Bin Laden himself is almost irrelevent.I am pleased that his body was dumped in the ocean unceremoniously to avoid making his grave a place of pilgrimage, but it is almost uunnecessary.  History had already passed him by.

The Arab Spring has made him and his movement unimportant. The Arab world is awakeninng and their anger is being channeled in more appropriate directions, against their own despotic institutions and not at imagined enemies dreamed up by misguided fanatics..  From Tunisia and Egypt to Syria, Yemen  Libya, Bahrain and beyond-- the fire of freedom is burning in the bellies of the young and it is burning ever more brightly every day. In the face of the major changes in the Middle East, the death of Bin Laden at the hands of United States covert operators seems like an epitaph rather than a bell-weather.

If we Americans are going to dance in the streets in celebration, let's celebrate the rebirth that is taking place in the Middle East and not the death of a man, who, in the end, is going to be nothing but a footnote to history.  Sometimes to forgive and forget is the best revenge.

Look Back on 9/11 But Don't Stare

I am so totally on the same page with President Obama today on remembering and observing the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11. It is fitting to remember the people of all faiths and nationalities who perished and to remember how shocked we all were by the first invasion of a foreign enemy on American soil since the British burned Washington in the War of 1812.

What is totally not OK, is to demonize a whole religion, including American muslims and to turn the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks into a xenophobic hatefest to unify the far right and build a political power base. I am appalled at the notion of burning Quarans and holding hate rallies like the protest scheduled for ground zero this afternoon.  It is dangerous and just plain wrong.

When you start demonizing people, you de- humanize them and make it ok to slaughter them or pop them into ovens and concentration camps. Scapegoating is a dangerous occupation which easily backfires. It has also been observed that what begins with the burning of books often ends with the burning of people.

Listen to what President Obama had to say in his press conference yesterday and think about it.  Come on America. Let's look back on 9/11 but not stare.