“I’m going to try and stay in the air as long as possible.” Paul Tosch exclaimed as the sound of helicopter rudders chopped through his morning traffic broadcast. The DJ followed Tosch telling the Seattle morning listeners that all of the flights were grounded. At this point, Jeff jumped out of bed, turning off the alarm clock radio, and flipped on the television. I went to the bathroom to grab my glasses and we stood in front of the TV that sunny morning and watched the Towers as they spewed smoke. That was five years ago today, and I can still remember as if it happened a week ago.
I used to ask my mother to recall the day President Kennedy was shot, and she would tell the story about how they closed the Catholic school she attended that day. She said she went home to my Grammy and told her to turn on the television, and my mom always said she’d never forget the stunned look on Grammy’s face as she watched the news of the young president’s death. Years later, we know about the grassy knoll, and suspect that his murder was orchestrated by a number of key political figures in his own administration, but we still don’t know for sure. On the fifth anniversary of September 11th, we do know who attacked us and why they did it, but what we still refuse to realize is, that unlike John F. Kennedy, we bought our murder.
Right now we are waging a war with Iraq, and some of us have been asking “why” from the beginning. Most Americans were in favor of sending troops into Afghanistan to wipe the Taliban off the map. I had been an avid hater of the Taliban for years knowing of their horrible treatment of women, and felt that the U.N. should have done something about these bastards sooner. I put my faith and confidence in President Bush’s strong tones assuring us that he would hunt Osama bin Laden to the ends of the Earth. I was willing to devote my loyalty to this president until the moment he used this most heinous national tragedy to pursue interests in the nation with the third largest oil reserves in the world.
Today, I’m still pissed off at the way Bushy and Karl Rove manipulated the populace into believing that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with September 11th. The hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, and I think it goes without saying that if Saudi Arabia didn’t have one drop of oil, they would be wiped out faster than Hiroshima. However, if Saudi Arabia didn’t have any oil, then 9/11 would have never happened.
Herein lies the irony of the September 11th tragedy; we are all responsible. When we were hording, and while we continue to horde, oil we were lining the pockets of the bin Laden family with money that would be distributed amongst the males of the clan. One of the males just happened to be an Islamic extremist with a hard-on for hating all things American. It was our money flowing through his bank account that paid for the airline tickets that were purchased by the hijackers.
We didn’t know this on that day that remains burned into my mind, and until Alzheimer’s hits, will be embedded in my memory as clear as a bell. Five years later, we know how they got their money to buy the utility knives they used to cut the throats of the flight crew, yet we have done next to nothing to curb our thirst for the black gold. Are any of the Saudi royal family members suffering from a lack of funds right now? Not really, in fact, with gas prices at an all-time high, they are raking in more money than ever. Do the bin Ladens have to refinance their houses, because the cost of living has become unaffordable? No, because like the House of Al Saud, they are experiencing the same windfall, while you, the ones they secretly despise, are handing over more of your paycheck.
On September 11, 2001, we were an innocent country, because the majority of America didn’t know that they harbored this anger, but we can’t say the same thing now. We know they hate us, we know why, and we know what they are willing to do to us, yet we still continue to pump away passively hoping a 9/11 attack won’t happen again. Until we press our politicians to create a national plan for enacting alternative energy, make an exerted effort to junk the SUVs, and demand that we cut all financial ties with nations that promote the hatred of America, we will merely be forking over a down payment on our next murder.
3 comments:
Well said. It doesn't feel like 5 years ago. Words aren't adequate. Take care. x
The Bin Ladens were buddies of the Bush family.
Let them fly out of the country before they closed the airports.
It just sucks that so many were killed, that so many have died since.
I will post about my experience of arab society at a less poignant date than today. It goes without saying that it wont make for comfortable reading.
I was telling my husband yesterday that I don't believe 9/11 was a conspiracy concocted by the Bush administration. What I *do* believe is that the Bush administration treated 9/11 as if it were a gift. They wanted to nation-build in the Middle East. They've wanted it since Bush I was in the White House. He got smart, though (well, *kind* of), and knew it couldn't be done. Bush and Rove and Cheney and Rumsfeld used the American people to get what they wanted: oil and oil money. If we were still in Afghanistan full force, looking for Bin Laden and trying to bring justice to the families of 9/11 victims, I'd be comletely and totally behind the administration.
But we're not. We pretty much left a skeleton crew there and ran off to fight in Iraq under false pretenses. It makes me sick. It makes me sick that so many Americans fell for Bush's crap, and that so many are *still* falling for the crap.
I know, preaching to the choir.
Post a Comment