9/11 Is A Joke

Let me start by saying this: Seven years ago yesterday, the single worst event to ever happen to the citizens of the United States happened in New York City. A little over 3000 people were killed and the nation (and the world) was put into a state of grief that, seemingly, will never truly end.

I am not here to eulogize the dead. I am not here to deride the people who did it. I am not even here to commemorate the event. I believe that it was a horrible thing done by horrible people (whomever they may be) and should never be forgotten.

Here’s the thing: no one is LETTING us forget! Yesterday was filled with nothing but 9/11 trivia. There was a special on the History Channel all about it. I’m sure HBO or Cinemax was doing nothing but playing United 93 and Trade Center over and over and over again.

And, while those things are definitely a bit of exploitation, they are understandable. It was a day that will live in infamy and we expect it to be played out on at least the History Channel. (Hell, they play out Pearl Harbor the other 364 days of the year. Something else should get that other day.)

What is unforgivable is the fact that the politicians who are running for office right now are standing on the backs of the dead.

And guess who I’m NOT talking about. Yeah, Barack Obama has not said a whole lot on the subject. I’m sure that yesterday he did some little something to commemorate the event. But he has not made speech after speech talking about 9/11. Not that I’m aware of, anyway. If he has, then I stand corrected. But I don’t think that he has.

I’m talking about John McCain. I’m talking about Sarah Palin. I’m talking about Rudy Guilliani (who has made more money off the dead than most funeral homes). I’m talking about Bush and his entire crew of cronies who can’t stop talking about that one day.

There’s a reason for this: without that day, Bush would not have won a second term in office. He had done so much wrong up to that point and he did so much wrong AFTER that point that no one would have voted for him if he hadn’t kept bringing up the fact that, for one brief, shining moment, he made a good speech. That he was “protecting” us. That he was there for us on a horrible day.

Well, he wasn’t there for us. He was reading about goats. And he didn’t even look particularly surprised when his aide told him that a plane had just slammed into the World Trade Center.

John McCain, who I at one time had some respect for, can’t shut up about it now. He is riding those coattails as long as he can. If he’s not talking about 9/11, then he’s talking about how he was a war prisoner in Vietnam. Does he talk about the flashbacks that he has? Or the deep-seated trauma that he still suffers? Fuck no! That would keep him out of office…as it should.

I’m not here to put down his service to his country. Sure, I don’t agree with the Vietnam War. I think it was a crock of shit. But I hold nothing against the boys in uniform who went over there doing what some of them thought was right. They were told that they were defending their country. From what? They didn’t really know. Communism? Meh. Maybe.

Yes, John McCain was a prisoner of war. He was tortured. He was beaten. He was stuck in a small cage for months on end.

But…don’t you think that would fuck a guy up? Don’t you think that he might have some anger issues? Do you really want him near the Button? He may be a great senator, but senators don’t have the immediate power that the President does.

And how ’bout his rather cynical pick for VP? Sarah Palin comes from Nowhere. And I mean that quite literally. Even people in Alaska are saying, “Who?” She was a mayor of a small town. Then she was governor of Alaska for a year and a half. Now she’s a Presidential running mate. (After asking what a VP does, mind you.)

Why did McCain pick her? He probably picked her out a hat with the names of all of the female governors out there. He needed someone who would be as revolutionary as a black man as President. And he needed someone who would…um…grab the Hillary vote?

What’s funny is that that is exactly what they were thinking when they chose her. “Well, get a woman! We’ll get all the people who would have voted for Hillary!”

Um…no. Palin is a Third Wave lovin’ Creationist who uses her children like the rest of the GOP uses 9/11. She shamelessly paraded her kids to the entire nation at the convention so that everyone could see her soon to be war hero son and her pregnant daughter.

Speaking of…why did she decide to come out with the pregnant daughter news? Was it really because the Democrats would have jumped on it? I don’t think so. I think it was for sympathy.

Oh yeah…and she believes in witches and warlocks and speaks in tongues. I’m not even kidding.

So, that brings us back around to the subject at hand. Why is it that the Republican Party has been doing nothing but talking about 9/11? Why do they feel the need to bring it up every five seconds in interviews, commercials and debates?

Because they want us to remain scared. They want us to forget that, basically, we are already pretty damn safe. They want us to think that it is George W Bush’s actions that have kept us all alive and kicking.

Well, it’s actually his fucking actions that have made us, once again, the most hated nation in the world. We had the good will of just about every nation in the world on 9/12. Within about a year, though, everyone turned their backs on us. Why? Because we went to war in Iraq for no reason. None at all. No one was for it (except for Tony Blair, Bush’s puppet).

What did we do? We made fun of the French. You know, the guys who made us a little statue? The guys who helped us win our freedom? Yeah. We started calling things “Freedom Fries” and “Freedom Toast.”

How stupid is our government?

Well, they may not be stupid. But they are shameless. They are absolutely evil, conniving bastards who do nothing but profit from the dead.

All of the tears. All of the fear. All of the dead. All so that the Republicans can take office again and again.

Is this what we want? Is this how we want to teach our kids how to get what they want? To exploit and disgrace the memory of loved ones?

I say we stop commemorating 9/11. On that day, just live it like any other day. Instead, commemorate 9/12. THAT is the day that our nation came together. THAT is the day that we truly became a family. People banded together to help New York out of the darkest of times. And it wasn’t just New Yorkers. It was everyone. People all over the world were giving blood and money to help.

In the months after 9/11, there were vigils held, speeches made and plaques erected. But none of them stood as tall as the friends and neighbors from around the world who lent a hand in the recovery process.

For that moment, the world was as close as it ever had been. I felt like the people who died might have actually died for a reason: to bring us that much closer to a world were at least most of us could live in some sort of harmony. And for a few months, we did.

THAT is what we should celebrate every year.

To see some people who agree, check out this video. (I actually haven’t watched it yet, but I wanted to get this up as soon as possible…even though it’s a bit late for being on the 12th. I was away from my computer all day today. Dammit.)