September 11

Yeah, it’s my birth­day.  Thanks.  36.  Oh, much appre­ci­ated, and you don’t look a day over 21, either.

Five years ago today, evil peo­ple per­pe­trated a ter­ri­ble tragedy in this coun­try.  And yes, the world has changed since then.  But make no mis­take, the machi­na­tions of the con­ser­v­a­tive US polit­i­cal estab­lish­ment have changed the world in many more ter­ri­ble ways than the events of 9/11 did.  How can I say that?  Am I blam­ing Bush for 9/11?

Don’t be daft.

The world in the year 2000 was full of extrem­ism and ter­ror­ism and mass killings and inno­cent lives lost and habit­ual per­se­cu­tion and poverty and geno­cide.  The world in 2006 still has all of that.  Noth­ing has changed in that regard.  Ter­ror­ism wasn’t born on 9/11/2001.  Maybe Amer­i­cans had their eyes opened–in a hor­ri­ble, tragic way–that morn­ing.  But it was all there to be seen.

What is new is the pain, suf­fer­ing, and dev­as­ta­tion wreaked by our coun­try since then.  What is new is the belief firmly held by Amer­i­can con­ser­v­a­tives, evan­gel­i­cals, and extremists–and increas­ingly by the under-educated mid­dle classes hun­ger­ing for a Shep­herd to guide them–a belief that we have the right (some would say the God-given right) to pun­ish other peo­ple who dis­agree with us.  Com­bine this with the mil­i­tary and eco­nomic might of our coun­try, and you have today’s changed world.

A world in which I am both glad and hor­ri­fied to be an American.