It seems to many that the way we "remember" the victims of 9-11 is wholly inappropriate. If we really wanted their deaths to be memorialized, perhaps we would not give in to the terror that struck our hearts on one specific day twelve years ago. The only prudent step or two that needed to be taken to prevent future "attacks" of this sort would have been to install locks on the cockpit doors, or perhaps, simplest of all, utilize the information that we already had on terror suspects to prevent a gang of them from all getting on the same plane together. That would have made the victim's lives somewhat more important. Instead, we have bands play somber music, read their names, ring bells, create elaborate and moving displays of the flag, create million-dollar sculptures, (even in cities and towns that experienced no loss on "that fateful day") visitor centers and spend billions on "security" based on the fact that several dozen people stepped outside the very clear lines of decency. Simultaneously, we, (our nation's representatives) resort to threats of warlike behavior, continue to hold the title of largest arms dealer on the planet and to undermine peace and security amongst nations halfway across the planet.
I personally find this deplorable. Our abuse of nations continues unabated. We have effectively turned our backs on every region of the planet that the "intelligence community" has deemed a hotbed for the foment of terrorist organizations. We have collectively ignored most of the facts about terrorism and allowed trillions to be spent "protecting" us from the miniscule chance of danger. More people die each month from drunk drivers in our state of Wisconsin than were lost in the attacks of 9-11, yet we feel a sense of pride when reports say that our rate of binge drinking is higher than any other state, or that drinking to disability occurs even in our young people not yet old enough to legally consume alcohol.
Just to get my facts straight, I read the 2012 Global Terrorism Index the peak year for deaths attributable to terrorists was 2007. Since that time the number of deaths annually has dropped 25%. Of those deaths, 6% are the terrorists themselves. Although The USA spends the lion's share of the money that gets spent on security, the threat is the lowest here. Western Europeans are nineteen times more likely to be killed in a terrorist attack than people in North America. Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan were by far the most dangerous countries according to this 2012 report.
Our leaders and the media like to blur the lines of reason and accuracy for their own purposes, this is not new, but since they have latched on to the image of the radicalized Islamic terrorist, it has been used to taint the morality, disparage the piety and assault the integrity of Muslims everywhere. This is often done subtly, but the overt racism behind our fear factory allows us to ignore the plight of virtually every brown person on the planet. Never mind the fact that in our own country, religious fundamentalists are often associated with KKK (Ku Klux Clan) activity, other forms of bigotry and hate, chattel slavery, spousal and child abuse and the growing hate speech displayed by tea party groups. There seems to be an understanding that has been reached between home grown terrorists and those who tell us what to fear. Being the majority led many to believe that "might makes right" and that our nation is a "Christian nation", or even that we had the God-given authority referred to as Manifest Destiny, which allowed us to kill off and subdue the native populations, not only of our nation, but those of the Caribbean, Central and South America and wherever resources existed that we wanted for our own.
As the numbers change, The United States of America is becoming a land of fewer and fewer "whites". In fact, if we add up all the "colored" people, taking them as one group, the whites are in the minority. How many years will it take for Congress to look more like the average citizen? More importantly, since we live in a culture that worships money, how long before our representatives change from being predominantly rich white men to more closely approximate the average American? We may all have a bit of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the events of 9-11, but the daily assault by the ultra-wealthy upon the fabric of society is far more disabling. It seems that any attempt to speak truth to this kind of power relegates the speaker to the realm of terrorist sympathizer, un-American, or worse. Just as the rich and powerful branded those who called for environmental protection, improved educational opportunity and health care as Communists, the same forces are at work undermining the status of millions, if not billions of people who are calling "Bullshit" on the failed system that funnels more and more wealth to the highest echelons of wealth and power.
On 9-11, I always reflect on the slow death that our entire nation is experiencing at the hands of those who think that they will never have enough, in spite of the fact that they are choking on their own abundance. These are the same people who think, or at least try to tell us, that everyone hates us for our success. Those who have no standing, which is actually a larger and larger segment of the world's population will never matter to those who seem to count in our system. Not a single bankster, corporate welfare whore or Wall Street fraudster has been charged with wrongdoing over the collapse of our economy. Not a single person who claims that we would all be better off if the government was run like a business has been called out for their belief in fiction. Still, millions of Americans go to bed each night, fearing that they will lose their homes, that their retirement income will be wiped out by another crash of the stock market, or that they will be arbitrarily singled out for prosecution by the growing dragnet of information gathering that goes on under cover of "anti-terrorist" surveillance. The fraud, abuse and neglect of important issues that has come from committing so many resources to "making us safer" has hurt far more than the loss of a few thousand innocent people.
I personally find this deplorable. Our abuse of nations continues unabated. We have effectively turned our backs on every region of the planet that the "intelligence community" has deemed a hotbed for the foment of terrorist organizations. We have collectively ignored most of the facts about terrorism and allowed trillions to be spent "protecting" us from the miniscule chance of danger. More people die each month from drunk drivers in our state of Wisconsin than were lost in the attacks of 9-11, yet we feel a sense of pride when reports say that our rate of binge drinking is higher than any other state, or that drinking to disability occurs even in our young people not yet old enough to legally consume alcohol.
Just to get my facts straight, I read the 2012 Global Terrorism Index the peak year for deaths attributable to terrorists was 2007. Since that time the number of deaths annually has dropped 25%. Of those deaths, 6% are the terrorists themselves. Although The USA spends the lion's share of the money that gets spent on security, the threat is the lowest here. Western Europeans are nineteen times more likely to be killed in a terrorist attack than people in North America. Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan were by far the most dangerous countries according to this 2012 report.
Our leaders and the media like to blur the lines of reason and accuracy for their own purposes, this is not new, but since they have latched on to the image of the radicalized Islamic terrorist, it has been used to taint the morality, disparage the piety and assault the integrity of Muslims everywhere. This is often done subtly, but the overt racism behind our fear factory allows us to ignore the plight of virtually every brown person on the planet. Never mind the fact that in our own country, religious fundamentalists are often associated with KKK (Ku Klux Clan) activity, other forms of bigotry and hate, chattel slavery, spousal and child abuse and the growing hate speech displayed by tea party groups. There seems to be an understanding that has been reached between home grown terrorists and those who tell us what to fear. Being the majority led many to believe that "might makes right" and that our nation is a "Christian nation", or even that we had the God-given authority referred to as Manifest Destiny, which allowed us to kill off and subdue the native populations, not only of our nation, but those of the Caribbean, Central and South America and wherever resources existed that we wanted for our own.
As the numbers change, The United States of America is becoming a land of fewer and fewer "whites". In fact, if we add up all the "colored" people, taking them as one group, the whites are in the minority. How many years will it take for Congress to look more like the average citizen? More importantly, since we live in a culture that worships money, how long before our representatives change from being predominantly rich white men to more closely approximate the average American? We may all have a bit of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the events of 9-11, but the daily assault by the ultra-wealthy upon the fabric of society is far more disabling. It seems that any attempt to speak truth to this kind of power relegates the speaker to the realm of terrorist sympathizer, un-American, or worse. Just as the rich and powerful branded those who called for environmental protection, improved educational opportunity and health care as Communists, the same forces are at work undermining the status of millions, if not billions of people who are calling "Bullshit" on the failed system that funnels more and more wealth to the highest echelons of wealth and power.
On 9-11, I always reflect on the slow death that our entire nation is experiencing at the hands of those who think that they will never have enough, in spite of the fact that they are choking on their own abundance. These are the same people who think, or at least try to tell us, that everyone hates us for our success. Those who have no standing, which is actually a larger and larger segment of the world's population will never matter to those who seem to count in our system. Not a single bankster, corporate welfare whore or Wall Street fraudster has been charged with wrongdoing over the collapse of our economy. Not a single person who claims that we would all be better off if the government was run like a business has been called out for their belief in fiction. Still, millions of Americans go to bed each night, fearing that they will lose their homes, that their retirement income will be wiped out by another crash of the stock market, or that they will be arbitrarily singled out for prosecution by the growing dragnet of information gathering that goes on under cover of "anti-terrorist" surveillance. The fraud, abuse and neglect of important issues that has come from committing so many resources to "making us safer" has hurt far more than the loss of a few thousand innocent people.
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