An anniversary

As an extension of my Black Music Month reading and listening, I watched a documentary about a special group recording of "We Are Family", organized by composer Nile Rodgers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIdA9tNfPOU

In it, someone said how in America we don't tolerate prejudice. It struck wrong, but was immediately followed up by a segment on some of the harassment of Muslims that followed. I appreciate that they did that. I think the person who said it was sincere, but he was wrong, and what he was wrong about matters.

Yesterday was flooded with people sharing memories from September 11th of 2001, twenty years ago.

There are three main memories I have from that day.

• Staring at the television in disbelief as they played the footage of the plane striking the second tower over and over again. That wasn't healthy, but I know a lot of us did it.
• Walking on my lunch break and suddenly feeling fear when a helicopter flew overhead. Work was right by a flight school, so there were helicopters all the time. Suddenly it felt sinister. Everything felt scarier.
• Work was also dead. It was a call center, and there were no calls and no e-mails. We talked to each other, subdued, and were on the internet a lot. 

I was on the IMDb message boards. I remember writing that I knew lots of people were donating blood that day, but I thought I would wait a few days to spread it out. Someone posted that it didn't look like they would be needing much blood. I remember that sinking feeling, realizing that they were not going to be pulling living people out of the wreckage. 

I remember people sharing memories and poems. One person asked about another whom he knew lived near the towers. They had actually argued a few times, but he cared. When that person responded that they were fine, well, he was touched that his antagonist cared, and I was touched.

For all of the shock and fear there was caring too. 

I get why the memories keep coming back. I get why people say "Never forget."

That memory needs to be balanced.

Some people have taken to calling September 11th "Patriot Day", but that reminds me of the Patriot Act, which was a travesty. 

Remember that the following time period included euphemisms for torture (which does not work), invasions of two countries (one completely disconnected, so supported by lies, and one that we just got out of), government contracts going to administration contacts (and then not being fulfilled, at least in the case of Halliburton and Cheney), and many shameful things.

Here's some speculation for you: if Gore won in 2000 it might not have happened.

Because the W. Bush administration had such a focus on Iraq, it ignored other intelligence information, including some warnings from flight schools where the attackers sought out training. 

There would be no reason for Gore to ignore that information. That doesn't guarantee that any follow-up would have been enough, but it at least improves the odds.

That seems like it should matter, given the horror we felt, and the grief at the loss of almost 3000 people. However, some of the people most patriotic about September 11th have actively fought doing anything to counter a pandemic for which the US death toll is now over 660,000.

I can't help but wonder if that election had gone differently, how else we might be different.

It certainly seems likely that if Gore had won, that we would have made more progress on climate change, which was a passion of his. Imagine a twenty year head start on that, especially coming at a time when the government was running a surplus.

If we had not tolerated then that the person running a candidate's campaign was also the secretary of state for a key state; would we have tolerated a candidate who never revealed his taxes sixteen years later?

If we had realized how dangerous it was to have one state have so much influence anyway, and done away with the electoral college then, can you imagine how different the last five years would look?

If we had not allowed Cheney to cheat our soldiers, would we have tolerated all of the grifters and plunderers in the Trump administration? 

And in this what-if, there probably isn't the opportunity for Halliburton to cheat the government, but the point is that what we care about matters. Some of those choices made have made us worse as a people.

That is worth reflecting on.

And since we're doing it, let's remember that part of us still being saddled with Rudy Giuliani is the good will he got as mayor of New York City at that time, but that he was not a particularly good mayor. That included not having updated the radio equipment the fire department used, which may have affected communication and the ability to get some firefighters out. 

It may be too much to say he is responsible for the death of all of the firefighters killed in the tower collapse (over 100), but it is certainly right to say that he did not deserve the adulation that he milked because of this.

And yet, it might still be reasonable to call him "America's Mayor", depending on the America that we choose to be. 

Let me add that the IMDb message boards were deactivated years ago, after having been flooded with racism and sexism where it became too hard to moderate.

There are choices.