Exactly How United WERE We After 9/11?

MarianJack

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Fri Sep-09-11 07:01 PM
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Exactly How United WERE We After 9/11?

Edited on Fri Sep-09-11 07:23 PM by MarianJack

I can't help but compare 9/11 with other tragedies that I and members of my family experienced in our lives.

I am the son and nephew of World War II veterans and "Rosie the Riveters". I am fully aware of how the memories of people can be somewhat romanticized over time. However, there is a lot that my family members told me that I believe and that we know from historical documentation.

The day after Pearl Harbor, my mom's 3 brothers got up early so they could be at the enlistment office before the crowd. They arrived to find a line going around the block. On the way to the end of the line they met my grandfather, who was well into his 40s (ancient by World War II standards) in the line. he'd come there from his overnight part time job. The other men were happy to let my uncles join him in front of them. When the recruiting Sergeant saw my grandfather he told him to go home. Only one of my uncles was able to serve. From my extended family, my father and 5 uncles served, my mom worked in a meat packing plant with some of my aunts. There were paper, metal and food drives, rationing and "Meatless Tuesdays". Some (many) people cheated, but there was so much sacrifice done for "the war effort".

When I was 8, President Kennedy was assassinated. The entire country (with the exception of some rightist dipsticks) was consumed with grief and for 4 days. There was an unfortunately correct sense among the adults in my family that this was the end of American Innocence and an ushering in of a national sense of despair that lasted for years.

On the morning of 9/11, I was teaching 8th grade in a small Catholic school in South West Philadelphia. My wife was the 6th grade teacher and we were a very close team with the 7th grade teacher. Our Principal told us that she wanted our students, the older students in the school, to be aware of what was going on. I watched the buildings come down with my students thinking of how I was going to explain the deaths of, what I thought at the time, 25 to 30 thousand people. At the same time I'd received a call from my mom who remembered Pearl harbor ALL TOO WELL and was on the verge of hysterics.

Afterwords, we, like all Americans in a time of national crisis and emergency, supported the president. My wife and I never considered george w bush to be anything other than an unelected fraud and a moron, but he was (ugh) the president and we believed that politics stopped at the border. American PEOPLE were for the most part remarkably patient with each other, ie. not as much road rage and things like that.

American "LEADERSHIP" however, aided by a very willing and compliant news media, was a horse of a different, and very grim and ugly, color. I remember the under-reported stories, such as how karen hughes used her 9/12 meeting with george w bush to give him a list of political opportunities the tragedy availed him. Remember "Who'd know that I'd hit the trifecta"? Remember the lies about how there was a plane that was supposed to hit either/or the white house or air force one? I certainly remember Rep. McDermott's statement in "Fahrenheit 911" of how republican members of congress were speaking of how they had the chance to do some of the things they always wanted to do. I remember President Clinton's observation that the bi-partisanship was entirely one way and how, if Al gore were in the white house on 9/11 the republicans would probably have moved to impeach him. I also remember how ann coulter used her first article after 9/11 to attack the Clintons. I also remember how the republicans and their media accomplices used 9/11 as a tool to suppress domestic opposition and opinion.

Most of all I remember how, when george w bush had his 92% "popularity/approval" in the days after 9/11, media members allowed NO challenges to or critical questions of the bush administration. The example of this that I recall most clearly as an illustration of this was when we watched a local Philadelphia media cypher named wally kennedy telling people who called his Sunday TV broadcast they'd better be careful of criticizing bush because of his approval ratings.

Basically what I'm saying is that while the media is in the midst of it's all 9/11 all the time frenzy for the next few days; while we get the glorification of george w bush from certain circles; while we see them give the credit to the government "leadership" that should go to the majority of the citizenry, maybe we should also remember that "United We Stand" frequently meant "Knuckle under to this administration or else".

Just my 2 cents.

PEACE!