9/11 All over Again...or Not at All, Really...

I've done all i can to avoid this 9/11 stuff. i haven't felt this overexposed to the event since just after the disaster. I don't want to hear about it. All i see is the fluff from Mississippi. I don't see the humanity or the hurt anymore. i know it is there, but my head just won't grasp it anymore. I can't see New York from here. I can see New Orleans.

9/11 has become all TV Movies and fat bloated ceremonies. I don't know anymore. I watched the president's speech. It seems he decided to trot out Bin Laden again. the mastermind. the killer. you know, the man that gets ignored until election time when he gets to be a priority. stopping terrorism is something we do in the leadup to the first tuesday in november. then we get back to working this government for our good friends at brown and root. at haliburton.

Tonight the president said “The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.” I'm tired of the constant tie of 9/11 and Iraq. the terrorism in iraq came afterwe did. we made a government where more citizens die daily NOW than under Saddam. Think about this. we have a civil war that we created. we have a daily deathtoll that supercedes that of the 'madman' saddam. that's our winning strategy. we screw it up so bad that more people die than under saddam each day. perfect.

see. i can't even talk about 9/11 anymore. i can't stay focused. 5 years ago i was unloading freight at the mall. that was one of my jobs. I'd pass the bar in 2 weeks, but in that moment i didn't think I would. i didn't know if i was going to get a job and I was working 3 jobs to keep myself up an running. the story came over NPR. I couldn't recall a time since the 1st gulf war when i was so fixated on the radio. like my connection to the world. i felt a kinship to millions of other people who had disasterous events unfold to them through those radio waves. i felt distant and part of someting at the same time. i don't feel it at all now...because that moment in our time has been squandered.

Consider this:

Even my most ardent Republican friends cannot name a point in history when our nation was held in lower esteem around the world. This is fact regardless of whether any of us like it. Now think of this. 5 years ago a Million people spontaneously gathered in Tehran, Iran.

For US. to mourn the loss on 9/11.

A Million Iranians held a vigil for America 5 years ago. that is the image that's stuck in my head now. we aren't 5 years away. we're a lifetime away now.