The Way We Were

[NanceGreggs]

Six years ago today, the day started with an event so horrific, it seemed that nothing would ever be the same again. We were shocked, stunned into silence, reduced to tears, afraid and paralyzed.

Within minutes, we were on the move. There were no boundaries, no limits, no restrictions on what could be done – only a sense of what needed to be done, and the determination to do it.

People ran into collapsing buildings. People jumped into cars and drove hundreds of miles not knowing what they would do when they got to their destination; only knowing that whatever they could do would be done without hesitation.

No one asked about the color, religion, ethnicity, or financial means of those who required assistance; they only asked who needed help, and how they could be of service to those in need.

There were no Republicans, no Democrats, no supporters of any one political ideology. There were only Americans, and the unwavering, unconditional support of each other was the only ideology that mattered to anyone.

By nightfall, we were one. We were one America, one citizenry, one nation. We wept for our dead, arms wrapped around each other in an embrace that held only warmth, only comfort, only consolation.

In the dawn’s early light of the next morning, we were defiant, we were angry, we were Americans. The country was awash in the red, white and blue of flags; they hung from well-worn porch posts, they flew unabashedly on the hoods of Mercedes and pick-up trucks, they stood proudly on the landscaped lawns of country clubs and the front yards in neighborhoods that had seen better days.

This is who we were, before the unprecedented unity was turned into unprecedented division, before the friendship of our global neighbors was turned into enmity, before the righteous cry for justice against those who perpetrated the murderous deed was turned into a war cry against those who had no hand in the deed at all.

This is who we were, before those who saw the influence of fear, the profit to be made in war, the dollars to be reaped from death, the power to be wrung from the suffering of others turned their positions of trust into bastions of betrayal.

But we are still the the way we were; that was not an aberration, a once-in-a-lifetime moment of magic not meant to endure. We are still those Americans who stood together at the worst moment of our lives.

We are but buried under years of rhetoric, lies, corruption, manipulation, greed. Our resurrection from the grave has been a slow process, but we will be those people again.

[Mythsaje]

1. First Rec AGAIN!

Woo-hoo! What are the chances?

Nice one, Nance...

And, yeah. But what's more, is that after that day, nearly EVERYONE was, someplace in their heart, at least a little American. We had the world's love and support. And, like everything else, Bush frittered it away on his own ego-driven crusades.

[pinto]

2. We Are All Americans, Le Monde, 9/12/01

We Are All Americans

Jean-Marie Colombani, Le Monde (liberal), Paris, France, Sept. 12, 2001.

In this tragic moment, when words seem so inadequate to express the shock people feel, the first thing that comes to mind is this: We are all Americans! We are all New Yorkers, just as surely as John F. Kennedy declared himself to be a Berliner in 1962 when he visited Berlin. Indeed, just as in the gravest moments of our own history, how can we not feel profound solidarity with those people, that country, the United States, to whom we are so close and to whom we owe our freedom, and therefore our solidarity? How can we not be struck at the same time by this observation: The new century has come a long way.

*****************************************

But the reality is perhaps also that of an America whose own cynicism has caught up with. If Bin Laden, as the American authorities seem to think, really is the one who ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, how can we fail to recall that he was in fact trained by the CIA and that he was an element of a policy, directed against the Soviets, that the Americans considered to be wise? Might it not then have been America itself that created this demon?

*****************************************

Beyond their obvious murderous madness, these latest attacks nonetheless follow a certain logic.

Obviously it is a barbarous logic, marked by a new nihilism that is repugnant to the great majority of those who believe in Islam, which, as a religion, does not condone suicide any more than Christianity does, and certainly not suicide coupled with the massacre of innocent people. But it is a political logic, which, by going to extremes, seeks to force Muslim opinion to “choose sides” against those who are currently designated as “the Great Satan.” By doing this, their objective might well be to spread and deepen an unprecedented crisis in the Arab world.

In the long term, this attitude is obviously suicidal, because it attracts lightning. And it might attract a bolt of lightning that does not discriminate. This situation requires our leaders to rise to the occasion. They must act so that the peoples whom these warmongers are seeking to win over and are counting on will not fall in step behind them in their suicidal logic. This we can say with some dread: Modern technology allows them to go even further. Madness, even under the pretext of despair, is never a force that can regenerate the world. That is why today we are all Americans.

http://www.worldpress.org/1101we_are_all_americans.htm

[Mythsaje]

5. It's almost sad, isn't it?

So much has changed since then.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Your words are so damn perfect, my dear Nance...

Especially these:

Our resurrection from the grave has been a slow process, but we will be those people again.

Thank you

K&R

[Vickers]

4. How many of us will say, "Oh, the words that flow so freely from your quill,

would that they were mine, if only my quill would listen to my heart?"







(or something like that)


Love,

Vickers

[tomreedtoon]

6. Too optimistic for my taste.

We can't un-torture the people we tortured. And no matter how blame was fixated on a few guards at Abu Gareb, WE tortured them, all of the American people. We sent those boys in there, and we allowed our paranoia and racism to turn them into monsters. And they'll be monsters when they come back here.

We can't fix Iraq. We can't go in and rebuild the infrastructure we destroyed; the money supposedly allocated for that went into Halliburton and Cheney's pockets. Rebuilding it is futile anyway; the war between the religious sects we encouraged would only destroy what we rebuilt again.

We can't un-drown people in New Orleans. And it's too late for Democratic congresspeople to protest the treatment of New Orleans at the hands of Bush; they had their chance during the floods and did nothing, the traditional response of Democrats.

There may not be a God, as many on DU maintain, but there is sin. And there is no forgiveness. The traditional words of Jesus to the sinner was "Go forth and sin no more," but do you believe any of the people to blame for our problems, in both parties, wish to sin no more?

And that poison has spread from those people in the elite to the people in the street. Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have done their jobs well. There are more lies and poison accepted as truth and nectar among the public than just about any other time in our history.

Sorry, Ms. Greggs, but we are all damned. Live with it.

[Vickers]

7. Sorry dude, I didn't torture a fucking thing.

You miss the fucking point, but I presume that is your point.

[Mythsaje]

8. Speak for yourself...

If someone steals my money to buy a gun and then goes and shoots someone, it doesn't make ME a murderer.

This wasn't MY choice. In fact, I've been throwing a fit about it since it all began. Many of us have. You want to point the finger at yourself, that's your business. You start pointing it at me and Nance, you better think twice.

[NanceGreggs]

29. We the People did no such thing ...

BushCo did it all.

I am not damned, and neither is my country. We will only be damned if we allow ourselves to be fundamentally changed as a nation forever by the evil doings of a bunch of madmen.

[Skittles]

9. ten percent of us did not jump on the WE ARE ONE bandwagon

I knew as a Democrat those repuke bastards would use 9/11 to f*** America and that is exactly what they did

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Ten percent of us watched in horror as

Murka Went Nutz

[Skittles]

16. THANK YOU

I never for one minute supported that lying, stealing, incompetent bastard - NOT FOR ONE MINUTE - he most certainly did NOT fool me on 9/11/01 and it shocked me that he was able to fool so many people - people should have been asking the hard questions but they were too busy fawning over him - it truly made me sick and it did irreparable damage to America because it gave the neocons exactly what they needed

[calimary]

27. Neither did I. I found myself speculating, with not a little bit of fear and

trepidation, about what bush and friends might do to manipulate this event for their own aims. I remember feeling so uneasy that day - that something wicked this way comes.

Nance - I love your work. And I love this piece, also. And I WISH it were that way. For the most part it was - if you were strictly fixated on the pain and national agony of the event. However, if you were attempting to strategize ahead, and try to predict what would result from this, there was no sense of comfort AT ALL. In hindsight, the memories of that fleeting sense of national unity are bittersweet indeed.

[Skittles]

42. calimary nails it

I felt nothing but dread at the end of that day

[NanceGreggs]

49. Thanks, calimari

"For the most part it was - if you were strictly fixated on the pain and national agony of the event."

I guess I was fixated, and I don't think I was alone. The first thing on my mind that day -- no, the only thing -- was first responders going into buildings who never came out. Last minute phone calls to loved ones from people in the towers. People hanging on to the hope that some would still be found alive in the ruins. Strangers comforting each other on NYC streets. People jumping in cars in South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, headed for New York to help where and when they could.

Volunteers being turned away, because there were already too many to keep organized. Blood donors being turned away, because the clinics were already overwhelmed with donors. Phone lines being jammed because people were calling from all over to ask how to donate money.

Maybe it's because I'm a New Yorker, and my family and friends were there, many of them personally caught-up in the tragedy. Maybe because that city was my home town. I don't know.

All I know is that it was like watching my own house burning to the ground with my kids still inside -- my LAST thought was how the fire started, or who was to blame. There was plenty of time for that tomorrow, or the next day - but not while the house was still ablaze.

[Skittles]

50. Y'ALL SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN FIXATED

maybe then the tough questions would have been asked right then and there; instead, the country was lulled into a ridiculous WE ARE ONE fantasy that allowed neocons to BANKRUPT AMERICA AS WE KNEW IT. Don't you see - the problems did NOT occur later - they were there from the start and even BEFORE 9/11. As it stands now, the way 90% of the American people behaved and reacted to 9/11 WAS VERY MUCH PART OF THE PROBLEM.

[NanceGreggs]

51. Yeah, you're so right ...

I should have totally ignored the fact that I didn't know whether my son was on one of those planes (because there was a good chance he was), should have ignored the fact that my best friend's son was working in the South Tower, should have ignored the fact that I had family members and friends who lived near the WTC -- yeah, I should have ignored all of that and jumped in a car, drove to DC and demanded that we start investigating where the Idiot was, what he knew, and what he was doing.

Like I said, if your house is on fire and your kids are still inside, what do you do first? Worry about your kids' safety, or start demanding an arson investigation?

If you honestly watched people jumping out of buildings and your first thought was not them or their loved ones, but G.W. Bush and the political impact of the situation, I would suggest we're just not the same kind of people.

Yes, the problems were there before 9-11, and after -- that's not late breaking news to anyone. We all KNOW.

I have been against this war from day one. I believe our troops are being used as cannon fodder to accomplish nothing more than putting money into the pockets of the greedy. However, that's not a topic I would discuss with the parents of a fallen soldier on the day of their son's funeral.

Whether I, or anyone else in this country, was 'fixated' on the grief of others on 9-11 did not affect what happened the day before, or the day after. Even the most vicious warriors in history were honourable enough to stop the battle in order to allow time to bury the dead.

[Skittles]

52. I had family members on planes too

that did not make me drop all reason. The American people weren't just distracted that one day - how long was it before we had 9/11 hearings?

[NanceGreggs]

54. If you've read my OP ...

... and I'm assuming you have, it is more than obvious that I am talking about ONE DAY, THAT day - nothing more, nothing less.

If you've read anything more into it than that, then we have been talking at cross-purposes all along.

Millions of Americans WERE distracted that one day. That doesn't mean they were distracted the day before, nor the day after, nor the many months and years that have followed.

Each of us who lived through 9-11 will remember it all our lives, each in our way. MY WAY is to remember the heroism, the courage, the selflessness of those whose only thought was the welfare of others.

If you consider that to be "dropping all reason", that's the way you see it. But I don't.

I think it was a twenty-four hour period when reason - along with compassion, responsibility, and a sense of humanity - took precedence over all other considerations.

Those who perished on that day were, IMHO, victims of a crime - a crime that can be laid at the feet of this so-called president, his administration, and those who saw it as a means to an end. That doesn't alter the fact that the victims are the first priority at a crime scene, not the perpetrators.

[AZBlue]

53. Well said!

"If you honestly watched people jumping out of buildings and your first thought was not them or their loved ones, but G.W. Bush and the political impact of the situation, I would suggest we're just not the same kind of people."

[Skittles]

58. low f***ing blow

f*** that shit - I was able to care about my family AND my country

NOTE - have made up with the fine Ms. Nance via PM :) We are both such passionate people!!! :D

[HughBeaumont]

22. Proud 10%er here.

Ever since Building 7 came down, I've been on the warpath.

Against the Failure Fuhrer, that is.

He knew, and did NOTHING.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/

[Stuckinthebush]

15. Amen, Skittles

I remember vividly that I was crying and realizing that Bush was about to use that event and take us all into a deep, dark, black hole.

Sadly, I and the rest of the 10 percenters were correct.

[Skittles]

17. I DESPISE hearing we were all united behind him

no we were NOT - ten percent of us saw through the entire charade and I am stunned it was not more

[Mad_Dem_X]

20. No, not united behind HIM

United behind the country, willing to help our fellow citizens. I do not mean united behind the government.

[Desert Liberal]

21. Yes, thank you

United for our NATION, not for Dipstick and his lies! Thank you for pointing this out.

[Skittles]

39. no, 90 percent rallied behind that evil bastard

I REMEMBER IT VERY WELL

[NanceGreggs]

26. I was not talking about being united behind 'him' ...

... but being united as We the People.

I didn't make a point of the fact in the OP, because I just assumed it was a given: BushCo was not then, is not now, and never will be "one of us".

[Skittles]

40. "There were no Republicans,"

YES THERE WAS....those bastards never stopped putting the interests of the GOP above the interests of America - you are painting far too rosy a picture. Do you remember how we were never allowed one word of criticism of that piece of shit who sat in a classroom reading a kiddie book while people jumped out of the towers? We were NOT untited as people - ten percent of us knew what was going to happen and felt extremely isolated from the madness of the rest of America.

[NanceGreggs]

43. Please see my response at #41 ...

I am simply talking about We the People, and how they reacted on that day. And no, there were no Republicans at the WTC - only people who needed help, and people willing to provide that help.

I am not talking about politicians, and I'm not talking about anything that happened in the aftermath. I was strictly confining my OP to my fellow citizens that day, who showed remarkable courage and heroism in aid of others in NYC and DC.

As a native New Yorker, with family and friends scattered all over the city, the LAST thing on my mind that day was where the Idiot was.

"Do you remember how we were never allowed one word of criticism of that piece of shit who sat in a classroom reading a kiddie book while people jumped out of the towers?"

No, I don't remember never being allowed any criticism. I heard it loud and clear - just because the MSM didn't carry it, doesn't mean it didn't exist.

But the focus THAT day was on people dying, people missing, people perhaps still capable of being rescued - not on what the Idiot was reading that morning. There was PLENTY of time for that later - but I don't think that was uppermost in people's minds as they watched their fellow citizens grieving for those who were lost.

[Skittles]

45. you maybe didn't think of it that day

but I certainly did and I was not the only one

[NanceGreggs]

47. I'm sure you did ...

... and I'm sure you weren't.

[Arugula Latte]

38. Me too. I knew at the end of that day that that little prick who sat on his ass in the classroom

would exploit the crap out of that nightmare. I could not imagine the depths to which he and his evil cronies would sink, however.

[Prophet 451]

10. k&r n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

11. LIHOP is Treason. nt.

[NanceGreggs]

71. And MIHOP is murder. n/t

[RobertDevereaux]

13. Bravo, Nance!

On this, my 60th birthday, I give thanks for your eloquence and truth, post after post. Carry on swinging!

[JNelson6563]

14. I remember so well....

A day or two after the horror I went out to eat with my husband. I was still a bit shaken, as most of us were and I remember looking around a restaurant full of strangers, feeling grateful they were all alive and well.

Of course these days I am more likely to look around and wonder who was the asshole with the Bush/Cheney bumpersticker I saw in the parking lot.

*sigh*

Julie

[NanceGreggs]

31. You've just described in a few short sentences ...

... the real tragedy in the wake of 9-11. We went from identifying ourselves as fellow citizens to having to be suspicious of each other at every turn.

I often think about the first responders who rushed into the WTC that day, working side-by-side to help others - and how many of those people, within a year, weren't even speaking to each other because of their political differences.

Divide and conquer. The oldest trick in the book.

[Mad_Dem_X]

18. When I think of how united we all were

how the world was united with us...how so many offered a helping hand...it makes me sick how this administration has perverted that good will and turned everyone against us.

I read a headline that said TODAY WE ARE ALL AMERICANS, and I felt so happy and full of pride. Now, I seethe with anger over this so-called "president" and his corrupt cronies and what they have done to my country.

[Skittles]

19. THEY PLAYED YOU FOR FOOLS

only the ten percenters knew - there should have been more come over but it was not to be until the damage was well, well underway

[Skittles]

59. THANK YOU

be prepared to be accused of not caring for your family or the victims

[Vickers]

67. You're agreeing with YOURSELF?

:wtf:

Holy shit, that's funny!

[Semper_FiFi]

75. I AM GLAD YOU PRAISE YOUR OWN POST! (caps for drama)

:eyes:

[Jed Dilligan]

23. That moment of unity was the most terrifying thing I've ever witnessed

The last thing I want to see is this country united in common cause again. Yikes. Look what happened.

[Ron Green]

25. Exactly. Nationalism is what we DON'T need, what we NEVER need again.

I knew immediately, when those towers were attacked, how this would play out. The flag-waving, the shopping, the threats, the propping-up of the incompetent Bush, the war against someone else . . .

That's what changed on 9/11. The propaganda became acceptable.

[NanceGreggs]

30. What happened wasn't the result of that unity ...

... but the result of the division that BushCo immediately set about creating.

Imagine if we'd stayed unified and said NO to Iraq, NO to the Patriot Act, NO to everything else that has gone on. Yikes! Look what could have happened.

Dividing Americans into two camps was imperative, and in that BushCo succeeded extremely well.

[Jed Dilligan]

32. It makes a nice story but I don't buy it.

First of all, count me out of the "We." My feeling on 9/11 was strictly one of horror at how the administration and Americans in general would react to the event. I almost bailed. Part of my family came out of Fascist Italy and the horrors of nationalism are deeply ingrained in my consciousness.

Second, I don't remember the Patriot Act or the Iraq War buildup being especially divisive issues. Of course a few of us were protesting but we were considered "fringe" and irrelevant because everyone else was "behind the President in a time of crisis." Didn't our Democratic reps and senators overwhelmingly support these policies? Didn't the people? Without the post-9/11 unity this support would not have been forthcoming.

We're now united by a different disaster in a different way. After a few years of horror in Iraq the general public is finally united against Bush and that war. Yet, I still don't feel like we're particularly divided on the Patriot Act. They'll have to start rounding up white Americans before that happens.

And, unfortunately, since the anti-war unity does not have an effective leader--and in fact, those of us against the war are deeply divided on almost every other issue--we probably won't be able to affect the situation no matter how we feel.

I am most comfortable in a divided country, especially since we have a military with the capacity to wipe out most of the human species. Perhaps that's a cynical viewpoint, but I see the current situation as a result of what happens when Americans come together and act as one.

[NanceGreggs]

34. I remember a great deal of divisivness ...

... leading up to the Patriot Act, and especially leading up to Iraq. Bush's approval shot up to over 90% the day after 9-11, yes - but from there it was a steady decline downwards, and he was below 60% just prior to the invasion of Iraq. So obviously, we were not a country united behind him or his policies.

Perhaps it's a matter of who we 'hang' with, if I can put it in those terms. I remember that among my family and friends, we talked of little else once Bush started mentioning going into Iraq. I remember everyone saying WTF? What does THIS have to do with 9-11, or what we were supposedly trying to accomplish in Afghanistan?

So I don't see how you can say that the present situation is a result of Americans coming together and acting as one. We were a deeply divided country on the heels of the 2000 election and Bush's installation in the WH and - with the exception of the immediate aftermath of the shock of 9-11, and being fairly united about going after Bin Laden in Afghanistan - we have been a deeply divided nation since.

There is no "working as one" here at all.

[Jed Dilligan]

35. The post-9/11 "bounce" was the political capital

that allowed him to push the Patriot Act through the Senate 98-1 and maintain public approval for Iraq around 75% until late in 2003. Sure, he spent a lot of that capital antagonizing Democrats, but I don't think that's the cause of his low approval ratings now. His low approval comes from his mishandling of the war and Katrina.

As for whom I "hang" with, I don't know one person who even wholly supported invading Afghanistan; most of my friends were LIHOP or MIHOP from day one. I only base my analysis on public opinion studies that I've watched over the course of the last few years. I'm used to being utterly marginalized politically; it's something I take for granted. In fact, I never even voted above the state level until 2000.

Is your point that a well-intentioned President enjoying 90% approval after a national tragedy could have accomplished great things? I don't disagree, but the situation is strictly hypothetical.

[NanceGreggs]

36. Oh, yes, agreed about the "bounce" capital ...

Most of our crowd was pretty ambivalent about going into Afghanistan, but the second the word "Iraq" came out of Bush's mouth, we were all dead set against it.

As for LIHOP/MIHOP, most people I knew just considered 9-11 to be the result of an administration that just wasn't doing the job, led by the Blundering Idiot. Those of us who were familiar with PNAC, however, went to LIHOP right away. ("... a Pearl Harbour like attack on US soil")

No, I wouldn't suggest that his low ratings now are a result of antagonizing Democrats. But the divisiveness has always, IMHO, been part of the cabal plan. I remember the speech, "You're with us or your against us." I said to my husband, "He's not talking to the world at large; he's talking to US."

This Admin has done everything in its power to keep the rhetoric ratcheted-up, and their supporters rose to the bait every time. If you're not behind the war you're an America-hating traitor, in cahoots with the enemy, blah, blah, blah.

A citizenry that is united is always a risk for people like BushCo - because if and when they turn against you, it's not SOME of them; it's ALL of them. I've noticed that the most divisive topics get dragged out every time the natives start getting restless - bringing up gay marriage or abortion will get people screaming at each other, instead of talking to each other within minutes.

Do I believe that a well-intentioned president with a 90% approval rating could have done great things? Absolutely - but this was no well-intentioned president, and 9-11 was part of a much larger agenda.

As you can tell, I've since gone from LIHOP to MIHOP.

[Jed Dilligan]

37. Seems like we agree on most points.

The only difference is, what you are calling "divisiveness," I would call "typical fascist demonization of dissenters and conflation of dissent with external enemies." Of course, that tactic can backfire on the fascists just as hard as national unity: once you get a majority or even a substantial minority feeling demonized and actually threatened militarily, you have civil war on your hands. A unified populace with a little sense in its collective head is a much better scenario; it would allow for a peaceful turning of the tide. However, the very fact that an overwhelming majority of us rallied behind Bush after 9/11 indicates that we don't have a drop of collective sense. We're courageous, sure, and eager to help our fellow countrymen; this is true of all "developed" countries. (I leave out the postcolonial world, where tribe is more important than nation but the same traits exist in regard to it.) However, if you put a Hitler or a Bush at the helm of these positive traits, they are much more dangerous than cowardice and apathy.

[NanceGreggs]

41. It seems that we agree on all points.

My musings in the OP were simply about the fact that we were at our best as Americans on that day. I think most Americans are truly decent people.

My recollections of 9-11 will always be the courage and decency of my fellow citizens. I've never heard a single story about a firefighter or NYC cop who ran into the WTC saying, "I'm here to save the white people, or the Christians, or the Republicans only." No anecdotal tales about people giving blood and saying, "Make sure this doesn't go to some gay guy."

We, as individuals and as a nation, are capable of great things. But, as you've said, under a Bush or a Hitler, we are equally capable of madness.

I just want to remember the greatness of that day, the unity, the sense of family - it reminds me that underneath all the garbage, the political rhetoric, the bigotry, the in-fighting, we are indeed a pretty remarkable people.

Our ultimate destiny lies in tapping that resource and using it to good purpose. I may be more optimistic than some (all right, than MOST), but I do believe it can be done.

And thanks for all of your replies - I have thoroughly enjoyed this exchange of ideas.

:hi:

[Jed Dilligan]

46. It's rare to have such a high-level dialogue here

and an honor to have one with such an esteemed member of the DU community.

:hi:

[NanceGreggs]

48. Right back at ya!

:hi:

(Although I don't consider myself to be an 'esteemed member' - just another pissed-off citizen, and aren't we all?)

[Skittles]

60. thank you Jed

nice to see someone else gets it

[puebloknot]

74. And I don't buy that Americans were *ever* "working as one" ...

... as a result of 9/11. Many people were properly shocked and cowed on that day, and thereafter, but in that case I reject the idea that "silence lends consent." Silence was a necessary means of trying to come to grips with the fact that America had been attacked ... but by whom?

For me, that old kid's poem came to mind: "That there is a Devil there isn't a doubt; but is he trying to get in or trying to get out?"

The lessons of fascism in Europe, a mere 60, 70 years ago, are fading fast. Only grumpy old men and women, and an occasional history professor, it seems, want to make reference to such a distasteful and inharmonious subject!

Anger is getting a bad rap in America, especially among those who think Progressivism requires giving up reasoned *judgement*!

[puebloknot]

73. I agree. The crowds at the Nuremberg Rallies were "Unity" personified. nt

[Bluzmann57]

24. It's nearly unbelievable that bush and co. blew it

so fast and so completely. As the op stated, we were all Americans on that fateful day and we all pulled together. But then came bush and co. to totally and completely blow it. It's hard to imagine any other leader of any other free nation could screw up this badly. Thank you for this post. I believe as you do, that we are still all Americans, that we will pull together again. Americans by nature, are a caring and giving people who help out those in distress. We will return to that thinking again someday.

[Skittles]

44. PLEASE

they did not BLOW IT - they PLANNED everything they did since WAY before 9/11.

[NanceGreggs]

55. On THAT point ...

... we are in TOTAL AGREEMENT. You don't blow the unity of a country and the empathy of the world by accident - even if you ARE as incompetent a dumbass as Georgie. You can only 'blow it' by careful, planned-aforethought design.

And jeez, isn't it odd how not a single person in this administration acted with even a modicum of surprise in all of this? Why, it's almost as if they expected it all along ...

[peacetheonlyway]

66. "One Man is an Oppressor ....

because many are slaves, let us despise the slaves..." -anonymous

read the free online book called "The Authoritarian" by Robert Altemeyer
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/


to learn about the psyche of a nation in Germany and now America more excited by conventionality, rules, respect for authorities and a willingness to do what that authority urges to understand the kind of group think/sheeple reactions we've gotten from folks on everything from nonaction to Katrina, to nonaction over the patriot act, spying on Americans, torture, etc.

** no matter what this chapter of history will show Americans blaming the press, blaming bush, but not taking personal responsibility for letting it get this bad!!!

the fact that today, I was at the puyallup fair, and feel pretty certain most of the folks there are too uninvolved politically to really know the liberties they have sacrificed to this administration. I wanted to ask them if they wondered if a 5 'accidentally loaded bombs' on a airforce plane that has no possibility of accidents with strict nuclear procedure could signal a buildup in nuclear arms for an Iran strike? how would they feel about that... feel pretty sure most of them would side with the authority and say "iran deserves it"

how do we fight an inherent love of authority by the people?????

[jmondine]

28. We will be those people again...

... and fates willing, it will not take the deaths of thousands to get us there.

[Vinca]

33. I hope you're right. Today I heard a reference to Obama Bin Laden

and all I could do was shake my head. What would compel someone to say that? It's hard to imagine there will be a day when there isn't a great divide. Sometimes I wish we could split America in half and take it from there.

[peacetheonlyway]

56. this made my day, Thanks Nance

your words send shivers up my spine.

thanks for tellin' it like it is..

from someone who was "supposed" to be in the Trade Center that day and chose not to go because of dreams she had.... feeling a very real sense of "there but by the grace of god went I", could have been me NOT reading this awesome post, but because it is, I have a duty to defend the America I know still exists...

far from the madding pundits
far from the madding press liars
far from the madding generals who read from the bush written script
far from the coffins collecting at the gates of our supposed operation iraqi freedom
far from the houses with no electricity
far from the madding crowds of protesters who are put in jail and kicked and beaten sensely, legs broken because of wearing a button that says "I love iraqi's"
far from all of this madness, I know most of america was as you posted ms. greggs... and I know that most of us are protesting and that most of us want bush and cheney in jail in the hague for war crimes..

this i know.

[NanceGreggs]

57. So glad you're still here with us ...

... and a toast is in order for those who are not.

To absent friends: :toast:

[peacetheonlyway]

62. Here's a toast for the brave children and women of lost fathers and mothers in RedBank New Jersey

and here's to my friend Charlie who lost both his parents on flight 93 and then had to shake Bush's hands and be serenaded by United airlines but never ended getting a dime from either....

here's to all the people who know that we never got the truth about 9/11

[NanceGreggs]

64. Yes, here's to all ...

... you will never be forgotten.

That's to say that no matter how many times Georgie invokes your tragedy as a talking point, we will remember you in spite of him.

:toast:

[AnotherGreenWorld]

61. How unoriginal.

[NanceGreggs]

63. My OP ...

... or your response?

[Semper_FiFi]

76. Yet, your post was inspired by the muses.

:eyes:

[peacetheonlyway]

65. Thinking optimistically

that same courageous group of people, were surrounding Geraldo chanting '9/11 was an inside job' and Geraldo called them commies on one of his recent shows.... optimistically we are still out there working our magic.....


that same courageous group of people, now colored in Pink outfits, were called "assholes' by a Democratic Senator (Ike Skelton) when they assumed their right of free speech and disrupted the Patreus speech.

for those of us that go to every key protest, every key Bush visit to our state, and sit screaming "war criminal' to a motorcade that is 4 streets over and surrounded by so many cops you cannot even see the car, what higher level actions can we do, what deeper level of commitment can we make to restoring the America, you so eloquently paint still exists?

how do you envision in your last line 'we will be those people again.' just curious....

[NanceGreggs]

68. Haven't you just answered that question yourself?

"Those people" are out there (as you have just pointed out), and there are more of "those people" waking up and rejoining reality every day.

Maybe it's just because I'm old - old enough to realize that BushCo is the aberration, while the decency of the American people has been a sustaining force for two hundred years and more.

[peacetheonlyway]

69. good point

more of the same or something even more radically peacefully nonviolent..

where's ghandi and martin luther when you need them????

cindy / ghandi... very similar names.....

[NanceGreggs]

70. As I said, I'm probably a lot older than you ...

I remember when Rosa Parks was LBN, and people were saying, "I understand the woman's point, but just what does she think she's accomplished by refusing to go to the back of the bus?"

And the rest, as they say, is history - more than that, it's American History; something to be proud of, something to inspire, something that encourages women in pink to speak their mind and insist on being heard.

Never give up.

[puebloknot]

72. Although I understand that the focus of this OP is the unity...

...humans had for each other in our national suffering on 9/11, I think that the idea that America came together as one on 9/11 and in the weeks and months that followed has been exploited ad nauseum to justify acts of betrayal on the part of our unelected government.

On that day, I was avoiding my "Joe Sixpack" neighbor who was planting American flags all over my neighborhood, and who was practically orgasmic over the opportunity presented by 9/11 to go to war and "get 'em."

And on that day, I was having tea with my new Iranian neighbors who rushed to display "United We Stand" signs in their front windows and on their car. They asked me to accompany them to the grocery store because they felt an American presence might make them safer when they had to leave the "safety" of their home.

September 11 was a deeply emotional day for me. Three nights before its occurrence, I had a compelling dream in which terrorists had surrounded my house, which was right next to a huge towering mountain. That we are "all one" in our deepest knowing is signified by the fact that hundreds of people reported similar dreams, and all of us have questioned the futility of receiving such "altered state" intelligence, with no ability to make any difference.

I thankfully did not have immediate family members in harm's way on that day, although the husband of a distant cousin was killed in one of the towers. I have turned over in my mind, again and again, what that kind of agony must have been like, and as long as I live, I will never be able to cleanse my mind of the vision of a man falling, head first, from one of the Tower buildings.

Also, on that day, as I watched the planes slamming into the Trade Center, I was unable to avoid remembering that this event was taking place very, very shortly after the nation had suffered the outrage of a trumped up and illegal impeachment of a legally-elected sitting President, a fraudulent election, and the installation of a soon-to-be dictator by a rogue Supreme Court. I knew in my gut that day that there was something not kosher about the show I was watching on the television.

My unity that day *was* with the suffering people of my country who lost their lives, or were terribly injured, and with their loved ones. But I was never willing or able to lose my skepticism over the "United We Stand" clarion call which became something of an expected part of safe public discourse, and which furnished cover for the war in Iraq. I kept remembering that intelligent and compassionate people *are* able to hold two conflicting feelings or ideas at the same time.

Even on the most sacred occasions, when we review our losses and shed our tears, it's important to keep our national wits about us! September 11, 2001, has become much more than one day. It is a symbol for our suffering and dying democratic republic. Hope springs eternal, and I devote a lot of time to consideration about which way the pendulum is going to swing, and try to keep hope alive.

This was meant as a short comment, but the words kept coming. Apologies for my verbosity.

[Perry Logan]

77. I first heard about the attacks through Alex Jones--so there was no experience of unity for me.

The first I heard about 9/11 was from Alex Jones--who was using the event to attack and accuse his fellow Americans right from the get-go. That did it for any sense of unity I might have had.