by James Glaser
Sepember 11, 2003

Every newspaper, television station, and many towns are having September 11th remembrance stories, shows, and community events. I hate to say this, but we got our asses kicked on September 11th. Everything we thought was protecting us failed. We lost big time that day and I don't like dwelling on that.

If we would have handled the aftermath better maybe I wouldn't say that. September 11th is the day that every branch of our government started pointing fingers at each other. It was the day Washington started to take our rights away from us with new laws and the day they started to make America scared.

Terrorist attacks, Homeland Security, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Deficit Spending, colored coded alerts and "you are with us or you are with the terrorists," are all new spin lines for Washington. Make Americans fear for their safety and they will let you do anything.

We had airport security back in 2001, we just didn't enforce it and those terrorists walked right on to those planes. Now we have spent billions, revamped our whole government into a new Department of Homeland Security with over 170,000 employees and still we don't enforce the rules.

"For the second year, US government screeners have failed to detect a shipment of depleted uranium in a container sent by ABC NEWS from overseas as part of a test of security at American Ports"

Did the Department of Homeland Security take this as a warning that they had to do better? No, they got the FBI to start an investigation on the ABC personnel to see if they could charge them with a felony.

Think back to September 11th. What was the first thing we did? We stopped all aircraft form flying so that the military could secure our air space. That isn't quite true, one plane was allowed to fly and that was the plane that President Bush sent around the country to get the family members of Osama bin Laden's family and other rich Saudi Arabian citizens out of the country. 140 people in all. That is so weird and now we know it was the Saudis that attacked us and paid for the whole thing.

Think about how we treated the families of those that died in that terrible attack. Our government stepped in and said, we are going to pay you for your loss. Washington set up a fund to pay those families so that the Airlines wouldn't have to pay for their screw up with airport security and that would save the big insurance companies billions.

You know what? Washington does not believe that all Americans are equal. If you were a rich broker and you died in the World Trade Center, Washington says your body is worth millions to your family, but if you were a cleaning lady, your death is only worth about a quarter of one million for your families loss.

Every family that lost a loved one suffered just as much as the next family, but rich people in the eyes of our government are worth so much more than the average working American. Soldiers that die in George Bush's wars are worth almost nothing when you compare what the government gives to their families.

Today, Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld was giving a speech at the National Press Club and some people broke into a chant asking how many soldiers died today. Donald and the press laughed at them. Now tell me if what is happening to this country because of 9/11 isn't sick. American Soldiers are dying every day for George Bush's revenge war. Revenge for 9/11 or oil contracts for his friends?

George Bush and those that lead us constantly exploit the powerful emotional impact of the September 11th attack as justification for anything they want to do. George would talk about this attack and Saddam Hussein in the same sentence, until he got most of America believing that Saddam was behind the attack, instead of the real terrorists from Saudi Arabia. It worked and George used 9/11 as justification for a War in Iraq

I don't want to remember September 11th, because it has been perverted so badly by Washington. 9/11 is the excuse for everything. America has killed thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan because of that attack.

It matters little to those spinning this war that those thousands we killed were just as innocent as the 3,000 we lost. President Bush will tell us that the soldiers that die in Iraq are fighting terrorism, but that is doubtful, it is just a new spin line after the "weapons of mass destruction" and the "imminent attack by Iraq" lines have fallen into disfavor.

The attack on September 11th was a terrible loss for our country and horrible for those that lost loved ones, but what our government has done with that tragedy is worse. We have corrupted the memory of that day and made it into a reason for us to become the terrorists that attacked us.

Ask any Iraqi mother that lost a child, ask any Afghan child that lost a mother. Killing a million innocent people the world over will not bring back the people we lost and that is the direction President Bush has us on.