Remembering 9/11. Or Not.

If you came here for the usual edition of Great Moments in Editing and Signage, I'm sorry. Come back again in two weeks and it'll be here. Today is a day other things need to be said.

I can't believe it's been 25 years since 9/11.

It was a terrible day for thousands of people in New York, Washington, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I was at work in the Pentagon on that day, but had the good fortune to be at a location in the building well away from Flight 77's point of impact. I was terrified, but unhurt, and my family spent anxious hours wondering if I was alive or not. 

The world changed that day, but in the fear and terror of the moment, we didn't know just how much.

A whole generation has grown up without first-hand experience of what happened on that awful day. The events of 9/11 have faded into irrelevance other than as an excuse for the curtailment of our rights in the name of "national security." Many of today's young people have no idea what happened on that day, who is responsible, what their motivation was, and why it all matters ... 

The events of 9/11 led directly to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and fueled the rise of the angry, vindictive surveillance state presided over by the likes of Der Furor, Stephen Miller, and Tom Homan, and enforced by ICE, a modern-day secret police lavishly funded by a blithely fascist Republican party and protected by Der Furor's personal law firm formerly known as the Department of Justice. 

I hardly recognize the country I loved and served through an Air Force career and later work as a government contractor. The national unity we briefly experienced in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 is a distant memory, if it's remembered at all. The allies who rallied to our side*, many of whom sent troops to fight and die in our pursuit of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, are drawing back in the face of belligerence and crude insults from Der Furor.

I will never forget what happened on 9/11, and how it began the twisted journey to January 6th and the wanton destruction of the nation we used to love. And I will never forgive those who ignore those lessons or, worse, have taken advantage of our national trauma for crass political and economic gain.

We haven't learned a damned thing.

Have a good day. If you were of age on 9/11, never forget what you saw and experienced. If you have come of age since then, educate yourself and learn to recognize ... and fear ... what the country has become.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* Article 5 of the NATO Charter, which which provides for the collective defense of NATO members, has only ever been invoked once - in support of the United States in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Der Furor conveniently ignores this, as he does so much else.