I filled my tank and went inside to pay; on the tv was the footage. I couldn't believe that it was real. Was it an errant plane, off course because of fog or broken gauges? I drove the mile to my sister's house, arriving just in time to watch the second plane hit. My sister was kneeling on the floor, unable to stop watching but trying at the same time to keep her 22-month-old son from seeing.
Two planes don't hit by accident.
This morning the News & Record reran Leonard Pitts' column from September 13, 2001. It is heartbreaking and not because of the sorrow and disbelief housed in his words but because he imagined a national response that never came to be.
Instead, we have been pulled apart by an administration that has managed to nullify everything that is unique and beautiful about our country. They have violated the Constitution through their illegal wiretapping program; they have defied our humanitarian efforts by using torture; they have embedded us in a war that has done nothing but strengthened the resolve of our enemies.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.
Five years later, we are neither safer nor more unified. Five years later, the Bush administration has lessened my fear in Islamic radicals but only because that fear is eclipsed by my fear of my own government.
2 comments:
Sarah Beth- I hate it when folks write about my posts without commenting on my site. I linked to this entry on my site.
I do disagree with your conclusions about Bush, especially that you feel more threatened by or own Government than you do the terrorists. Do you mean it lieterally, or are you saying something like you feel Bush's policies threaten our freedoms?
I don't recall when I wrote about you though I'm sure I did. You know, one of the things about blogging is that we put our opinions into the public sphere - what happens with them from there is beyond our control - like it or not, that's the risk we take and must live with.
My husband has a theory that he is only sort of joking about: Bush believes that the terrorists hate us for our freedom and has decided that if the government takes away our freedom, there will be nothing left to hate. Bush and his henchmen are stripping away everything that makes this country great and I feel enormously threatened by that. Because I love this country and because I know how amazing it can be, I have to fight and speak out - that's what patriots do.
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