today is 9/11, 2009.
I feel kind of blue today, because I’m reminded of the way we were ruthlessly attacked, and I despair that we have the collective will and capacity to do anything about it.
I swore when I first realized what had happened, that I wanted bin laden’s head on a pike. I hated him and everything he stood for and believed in with a perfect hatred. I am not ashamed. I am proud of my hate. Because it is based in a deep faith in the rightness of our cause, and the profound error of his and theirs.
I wanted vengance, yes. But I also want to send a warning. No one does this to us and lives. Like the decayed body of a rat caught in a trap serves as a sign and a warning to any other rats that may come skulking by, his ugly decapitated mug should stand at our borders for all to see: this is what we are! don’t tread on me!
but eight years on, I despair, thinking, no, this is not what we are. those of us capable of these emotions are apparently unable to accomplish the task, or confused it with other, pointless tasks, and tangled up in errors of every sort, until we are all wondering what the hell we are doing any more.
you all know what I’m talking about. I’m sick of talking about it. and the site of the world trade center today is still just a big fucking hole in the ground, mingled with the dust of the bodies of the fallen, never found. and we lack the nerve to demand that it be a permanent memorial, a sacred ground. used to be we had more of a mind as a society to put up memorials, and monuments to our fallen. but we can’t seem to do it this time. why? because of the almighty dollar, that’s why. the real estate’s too valuable for a memorial. can we even hear ourselves?
and then there’s others of us, I’ll tell you what I think. and I won’t mince my words, because this is my blog, and if you don’t agree with me, go get your own fucking blog and write it there.
I think we’re all just a bunch of pussies and we don’t have the guts to stand up for what we believe in any more.
the funny thing is, I’m a liberal (it literally means “free” you know, free in thought and free as in generous), but this is one area where the right is right. believe what you believe, but be prepared to defend yourself, or else you don’t deserve your own freedom.
you know, over the centuries, when the bad guys came, and the feathers began to fly, it was “protect the women and children” and the men would stand up, and do what needed to be done. and the women would see what we were made of. but not any more. even if we do stand up, our pattern is that after a series of blunders, after a while, we might get our act together, and just when we’re about to accomplish something, we forget what we’re fighting for, and we just give up.
if our fathers could see us now, if they could see what these cretins could do to us with impunity, what would they say?
but its been studied before, by Toynbee and Spengler and many others, after a period of success and comfort, not more than a generation or two needs to go by, before we forget what our civilization is really based on: power and the force of arms. without it, nothing else is possible. oh, I could go on, but what’s the point?
I’m ashamed of us. we suck.