We all know what today is. For some Americans it’s going to be a day of reverence and reflection. For others it’s going to be a day of rage. For a handful of ignorant bigots it’s going to be a day of burning the holy texts of people of a different faith based solely on the acts of a terrorist organization who just happened to consider themselves part of that same faith.
Despite the battle cry of “…or the terrorists win” that we’ve heard used in both sincere and ironic manners over the last nine years, America has allowed itself to be so fundamentally changed by the acts of a few men and some hijacked planes, by the loss of lives. The US has cast off a number of the freedoms that people take for granted. The Bush administration enacted illegal telephone wires and unconstitutional arresting of people without cause, without their usual rights, simply because they might possibly have done something involved in some loose manner with terrorism. America has invaded foreign countries and killed countless civilians in the search for the leader of the terrorist organization responsible for the events of that day.
America has let terrorism win because it has let that unfortunate day impact its thought process, its decision-making process, from the guy in the Oval Office right the way down to the guy on the street driving his car with anti-Islamic bumper stickers plastered on the side. Frankly, America is not the country I thought it was when I first moved here from the UK. It isn’t the land of the free when people can be taken from their homes without just cause. It isn’t the land of opportunity when the Republican Party, who want so much to remind us of the events of 9/11 insofar as it will get them back in office, are working to stamp out any potential “opportunity” the average person might have. America has been falsely advertised, and I respectfully request a refund.
America was told, “Never forget”. Clearly that’s not working out in America’s favour.