September 11, "Flight 93", and the attempted highjacking of a real national tragedy

Of all the things I despise George W. Bush for, exploiting 9/11 to steal, murder, lie, cheat, and attempt to destroy the world and my country may always reside at the top of the list. I know that not everyone shares my feelings, but I find that I still can't look at images or video of that day without feeling like I've been kicked in the gut. It may be more than four and a half years since that day, but my recollection of the shock, anger, pain, and everything else I went through has not faded. I don't know what it is - whether it's from living near New York at the time and seeing the smoke from the towers while driving home or just because of the magnitude of the event.

Now there's this new movie out, "Flight 93." (I promise, I'll get back to the President soon.) I have no interest whatsoever in seeing this movie. I don't understand why anyone would have any interest. Do we need a dramatization of those events? The reality not real enough for you? I've heard it's very well-made, and I'm sure it will make the producers buckets of money, and bully for them. They won't get any from me - I don't know if it's too soon, or if it will ever be long enough, but that's okay.

Back to the President. He's been trying to capitalize on 9/11, much the same way as the filmmakers are doing. However, while they are business people, creating and marketing a product that will likely make them money, he has a very different role in our country, a role which carries a responsibility to care more about right than profit.

Of course he doesn't. Everyone knows that the administration's sole objective for being in power is to acquire more power. In doing so, they threw away the best chance we've had to make collective progress as a nation in over half a century - think about what this country was like in the weeks following the attacks, the sense of national pride and connectivity - and then think about what things are like now, with the most bitter partisan politics (and resultant lack of progress) that nearly anyone can remember.

The main tactic they have used in this power grab, as we know, is fear. We're supposed to be terrified that terrorists could attack at any minute, and if we don't listen to everything he says, our children (even if we don't have any) will be killed and beaten and tortured and killed again and we'll have to watch and it will be the worst thing ever and then it will get worse than that and oh my god and and and

Sorry.

The leverage they use is the fear that we felt on 9/11. They have spent years trying to reach into people's guts to grab that fear, and use that fear to inspire hatred and lead us to war. Along the way, they have tried to hijack the real feelings of the American people and trade them for faux-jingoism and bigotry and war. They've acted as if somehow they have more of a claim on that tragedy than anyone else - that somehow their desire to kill and hate is more valid, is more urgent, is more necessary than any other reaction.

Stop it, Mr. President. Stop it right the hell now. You do not have the right to start a war based on lies, quoting my fear of terrorism as a reason. I do not need you (or a hack country singer, for that matter) to remind me how I felt that day. I do not give you the right to destroy the world in my name. I'm taking 9/11 away from you. It's mine. And my neighbor's. And my family's. It's everyone's, and you don't have the right to take it from us and use it for your evil purposes.

I was reading on a right wing blog about "Flight 93", and the delusional bloggers and commenters were busily spewing hate about how much everyone needs to see the movie, to remind us of the tragedy, and (in their sick minds, anyway) reawaken our national anger to lead us further into war. We've become complacent, they cry. We've forgotten, they say.

We have not. Just because we don't want to kill every brown person and build a wall around the country and burn the Constitution does not mean that we've forgotten. My reaction is as valid as any, and it's more human, and humane, than theirs. I say to them that they have no more right to claim ownership of 9/11 than the President, and I'm done. Hate if you want, but you will not do so in my name.