On the ninth anniversary of 9/11, we should all be ashamed of ourselves

It's really hard for me to believe that 9/11 was nine full years ago. I was a freshman, and I remember quite vividly what that day in school was like. I doubt I have to describe the mood, because I'm sure it was the same everywhere. Everyone was confused and terrified, but too numb to show any of it. It was as if the slightest spark could set everyone off in full blown panic. In all my classes that day, every one of my teachers had the TV on for the first ten minutes or so, and we watched the news. We watched it for my entire history period, because Mr. Bunch realized how historically significant it was, and he wanted us to remember it. The next day I sat watching all the stories of heroism, and martyrs, and all the mothers and wives and husbands in tears desperately trying to find their loved ones, and everything slowly started coming into focus for me. We're uncomfortable acknowledging it, but it really is quite difficult for the brain to process so many deaths. Large numbers are only statistics, and they don't feel personal. But the numb shock of that day slowly started to subside as I was repeatedly bombarded with story after story after story. The thought of three-thousand people dying suddenly became personal to me, and it was too overwhelming. I fucking lost it. I just sat there and I couldn't stop sobbing. To this day, I still don't think I've ever cried harder than I did then. 9/12 was probably the worst day of my life.

I'm seeing a lot of conservative friends on facebook right now repeating a single, specific comment on statuses: something to the effect of "It's a shame some people seem to have forgotten!"

This right here is the single most disgraceful thing a person could possibly utter about 9/11. Not only is it indescribably arrogant to presume what certain people may or may not have "forgotten" about the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States, but a statement like this carries a certain superior "I-know-better-than-you" vibe along with it. It's as if they were trying to say that only Republicans could remember 9/11.

They've politicized the deaths of 3,000 people. I'll skip over the countless examples of Bush era Republicans raping the memories of 9/11 victims for political gain, and just jump ahead to what they've been doing recently. Back in July, the House voted on a bill that would've provided $7.4 billion dollars in aid to people who had been sickened by World Trade Center dust. Recovery personnel in particular developed respiratory problems, and several dozen developed cancer. Every single firefighter on ground zero that day who survived lived on with varying degrees of impaired lung function. The vote for the 9/11 Responders Bill fell almost entirely on party lines. Only twelve Republicans voted in favor, and it failed to get the two-thirds requirement. A lot of people have seen this video, but it deserves to be watched again because this is what patriotism looks like. The entire country needs to be as outraged as Anthony Weiner.



What Republicans did was truly a national embarrassment, and so, like clockwork, another entirely irrelevant issue was propagated immediately afterwards as a badly needed distraction. The controversy over the 'Ground Zero Mosque', which is neither at ground zero, nor a mosque, has been shamelessly dominating our pathetic media for weeks. In the guise of patriotism, bigots have latched onto another excuse to yell at people who are different from them, and assume that a religion of 1.6 billion people is solely responsible for the actions of a terrorist cult. While pretending to love America, they believe the first amendment can and should be altered at their discretion. I've posted this video before, but it deserves to be watched again. Just as with Anthony Weiner, I'm embarrassed as an American that the whole nation isn't showing this kind of outrage.



As I commented on earlier, violent anti-Muslim hate crimes are now popping up all across the country. Total coincidence! If one didn't know any better, these acts almost seem like "the use of violence or intimidation for political gain." Or terrorism.

But the most reprehensible thing about these people isn't that they're doing and saying these things in the name of America; it's that the entire country is completely apathetic towards them. While half of the country seems more than willing to do the terrorists' job for them by taking away rights, the other half either doesn't care about what they're doing, or is too afraid to speak up. The only voices speaking out strongly against this renewed fascism are few, and don't hold much weight in the overall scheme of things. In 2010, your choice at the ballot is no longer between Republicans and Democrats. Your only choice is between theocratic fascists and apathetic cowards. On September 11, 2001, every person in the nation reminisced on what it was exactly about America that made America so great. If we're nothing but a bunch of fascists and cowards, then the entire country has forgotten about 9/11.