Post September 11 America is a pretty lousy place to be. Yeah, we waved our flags for a few days, cried together a bit, watched the same stuff on TV, and partied at the Concert for NYC some. But all those feelings of community were very short-lived. Our true nature of ignorance, blaming each other and generally lousy human nature bubbled to the surface with great force.
Shortly after September 11, 2001 an internet asshole (who knew a bit about me personally) decided I was somewhat to blame for the attacks because I voted for Ted Kennedy. In his ignorant mind, he figured that since the planes departed from Logan Airport and Kennedy is a Massachusetts liberal, and all liberals (especially Ted) are 'soft on security and crime' then Kennedy and his supporters (like me) must be partly responsible for the deaths of the thousands in New York. I am not kidding. This asshole really did believe his argument. That moment was a revelation for me. I realized that as shocking as it was to find out how much some non-Americans hate us, we also hate each other. Mix a little self-righteousness together with the hate, and acts of cruelty are the likely result.
Last year ABC Television aired a mini-series on the 5th anniversary of the attacks. The gist of the 2 day commemorative event was to make the argument that the attacks were the fault of the Clinton Administration, and that the Bush Administration behaved with great heroism. I made a sarcastic joke about this movie on a chatboard, saying that we should always remember and never lose sight of the fact that 9-11 was Clinton's fault. Another internet asshole (also armed with some personal knowledge of me) took offense and wished me dead. He followed up his death wish with further expressions of his anger, taking swipes at me on several personal levels. Again, proving how self-righteous anger often makes Americans inflict cruelty on each other. This particular ignorant asshole was so angry and nasty toward me that I couldn't really understand why he was angry. His expressions sounded like a very young child having a tantrum. I can only guess that he thought I was making an offensive joke about him, and that it was somehow personal. If he was one of the dumbasses who really did hold Clinton primarily repsonsible (I can't know for sure), then I guess he had a good reason to be very angry at me. I was making fun of that ignorant line of reasoning, and expressing my disgust with my fellow Americans. He may have thought I was being cruel to him, but I'll probably never know that for sure.
The first major terrorist act in America (post cold war) happened in Oklahoma City. Americans killed Americans for the shear joy of expressing their hatred of each other. Joy to the world. Not.
Some lyrics from one of my favorite post-September 11 songs:
"I wil lay me down
in a bunker underground
I won't let this happen to my children
meet the real world coming out of your shell
With white elephants
sitting ducks
I will rise up
Little babies' eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes"
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