As the nation finally looks to January 20th, 2009 as not only the first day of Barack Obama taking office, and a sense of relief from the rest of the nation, one thing that I've been finding quite disturbing over the past few weeks was people in various media outlets attempting to find some positive aspect of the George W. Bush years.
Many can find lots of reasons for the opposite -
- An unnecessary war being fought in Iraq that has cost billions of dollars, and thousands of lives and hasn't done a thing to actually keep anyone safe
- Another war in Afghanistan
- A major city being completely flooded in 2005, while both Bush and FEMA did not a whole lot
- Several financial crisies in the mortgage, housing, lending industries, plus countless business failures, loan defaults, bankruptices
- The politicization of whole government departments like Justice
Of course there are so many other things. And likely so many things we don't even know about. But one thing always strikes me as something people forget - 09/11/2001.
That will live in my memories for the rest of my days.
I was awake at 5 AM PST that day. I had to run some performance tests for our group at work. Fortunately I was able to connect to the network via my home Internet connection. Normally I kicked the test off, monitored it, and occasionally check online to see what was happening in the news.
But for some reason that day, it was very hard to get online at all. I kept seeing references to the 'attack'.
Turning on the TV, I saw - the first World Trade Center tower had been struck by a jet airliner.
Like most people, I was in extreme shock. Never in my life or imagination had I ever thought something like that would ever happen. And yet, there it was live. Then to hear that a second plane had hit the second tower. Needless to say, I was in struck beyond belief.
And then to watch as the fires raged, the towers crumbled, the smoke and debris in the air, people running for their lives. It was a nightmare coming true. Truly the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my life.
Then to find out later that other planes had been hijacked, and that the Pentegon had been attacked.
I think I was like most people that day and afterwards. How could something like this happen? The worst security failure in the history of the nation, more than 3000 people killed, many lives damaged beyond repair, many more shattered. Where was the government, the state, the city, the FBI, the CIA, ...
Where the fuck was Donald Rumseld - he certainly failed that day as Secretary of Defense?
Only to find out as the days, months and years passed that Bush's actions that day demonstrated that he was unable to function as Chief Executive. This after all that time spent stealing the election that Al Gore won. Then to learn about the rather close relationship between the Bush and Bin Laden families, W's insistance that he'd catch Osama 'dead or alive' (spoken like a true faux cowboy).
And then ... to find out that various agencies knew something was coming, the August 6th 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing that warned that Bin Laden was threatening to attack the US, that the man in charge of terrorism's cabinet position was reduced to next-to-nothing, and that he could not even get time with Bush or Rice or anyone else.
Bush's supporters tried to blame the previous Clinton Adminstration (ignoring that this event happened on Bush's watch). Of course it came out they had in fact warned Bush about the threats and Al Qaeda, but somehow these facts seem to always been ignored
Why do I bring this up? Why is this relevant today? Shouldn't we be celebrating that America seems to finally have come to its senses and elected not only a Democrat, but a very smart and shrewd one, and that we along with the rest of the world can finally begin to see some hope?
Yes this country has lots of problems. And I think the country has a real chance to let go of it's past and really move forward into the 21th Century.
Well ... it's because there are some in this country would prefer to forget, to remember things differently. They would have me and others think that Bush's term really started on 9/12/2001, that he and his government have kept the nation safe since (conveniently forgetting the anthrax attacks that occured shortly afterwards). That it doesn't matter that Bin Laden hasn't been captured, that we invaded two sovereign nations and haven't accomplished anything useful.
Well my memory of the event of September 11th, 2001 will not let me forget.
And I will never forget that it was Bush and his cronies that were in charge of the federal government on that day.
BUSH AND HIS GOVERNMENT FAILED TO PROTECT US ON 09/11/2001.
BUSH AND HIS ADMINSTRATION FAILED TO BRING THOSE RESPONSIBLE WHO ATTACKED US TO JUSTICE.
People who try to whitewash history must be corrected.
Those of us who remember must never forget. People who survived must continue to tell their story. People who lost loved ones or had their lives shattered must continue to insist on finding out the truth about the Bush Government's failures.
Because, if we fail to tell, if we fail to fight, if we fail to insist on finding out, we fail to learn. We become prone having this repeat itself. We become ignorant. We become paranoid and delusional. We become distrustful of one another. We surrender our will to live.
And doing so will let those who terrorize us rule. And that includes those who wish to not shed light on the Bush government failures on that day, and every day afterwards.
We must learn from our past, if we are to live today, and plan for tomorrow.
