9/11/2001- Twenty-Two Years Later

Re-visiting 9-11 - a short walk in New York City - 2001
(Image by You are being watched from flickr)   Details   DMCA

Revisiting 9/11/2001 is important and significant. We need to review how that day of tragedy, trauma and heroism shifted the direction of this nation and what the consequences of that shift have been.

To provide a context, a new millennium had recently arrived and the 9/11/2001 events were about to change the direction of the nation. In addition, the 9/11/2001 events occurred shortly after the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented move, had decided the 2000 presidential election without even a unanimous decision, making George W. Bush the president. This had been the dream of the neocons of the Republican Party who had a game plan ready, especially about how to project American power in the oil-rich Middle East.

One of the explanations of the motivation for the attacks was that our enemies were attacking our way of life. And we needed to respond in kind to protect that way of life. The three attacks were on the symbols of our economics, our military, and apparently, our government. It was not hard to call up a sense of patriotism within the citizenry. And that is what happened.

In the midst of the shock and trauma it was easy to change many things within our structures of governance. This is outlined in Naomi Klein's book, "The Shock Doctrine". The idea being that in a period of national shock and trauma it is easy to impose new ideas and to change even basic structures while people are traumatized and distracted and willing to trust those in power to operate in the best interest of the nation and its people.

Neocon Republicans were ready to use the 9/11 events as a cover and an opportunity to shift the direction of this nation. It was easy to impose restrictions on the populace and impose surveillance, secrecy, imprisonment on suspicion, secret sites and even torture. All these elements were also an attack on many of the basic elements of a strong democracy replacing them with what was called the requirements of a new War on Terror.

We are still living within the confines of those changes. Secrecy and surveillance are still a part of our society. Military expenditures are well over half of our national budget, we have "forever wars" in connection with the War on Terrorism, the Middle East is a mess partially because of our failed military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, our police have been militarized, guns outnumber people, and the number remains uncontrolled despite all the deaths, we imprison more of our citizens than any other developed nation, and we have rampant racism and intolerance.

Our democracy is in tatters. A year after 9/11, Bush pushed through a large new tax cut benefitting primarily the rich and assuring large campaign contributions. As corporate profits grew and taxes for the rich went down, the profits from all our military adventures created a whole new group of million and billionaires. Meanwhile, more of the tax burden shifted down to the middle class and working class while public services continued to be privatized providing profit streams for corporations at public expense.

As unions were in decline since the actions of the Reagan union-busting, workers made only small gains while the income of those on top grew exponentially, reducing the middle class in America and allowing the income inequality to become nearly obscene. Meanwhile, social services continue to be cut and many of the needs of the ordinary citizens and even infrastructure needs remained unmet.

Now we have a Supreme Court in support of those Neocon ideas and dark money ruling our electoral process while we continue to find more ways to control and restrict voting rights.

So now, 22 years after 9/11, it appears that the "way of life" that has been preserved is free-market capitalism, at the expense of democracy. Congress is dysfunctional except for things that support those on top. Our well-intentioned patriotism after 9/11 has been turned against the very heart of our democratic institutions. Apparently, some of our biggest threats have come from within our economic elite. As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

The result is a schizophrenic nation, at war with itself with no recognizable markers to guide us. We are a nation divided against itself with the outcome very much up for grabs. Will we tear ourselves apart with violent chaos, will we return to a pre-Revolutionary War nation run by an economic aristocracy or will we find our way back to an American democracy.

So, here we are 22 years after 9/11/2001. What have we really learned, and what will become of the great American experiment that once was a beacon for the world.

We will soon see.

(I am enclosing a poem I wrote on September 12, 2001)