Like everyone else, I can remember exactly what I was doing on that fateful day. Like everyone else my first initial reactions was shock and my thoughts were clouded by fear. But once I regained my sense of intelligence, the attacks and the government's response left me with more questions than answers. I urge people to stop mourning and simply remembering the dead. Seek justice. Seek answers. Even today as some of the classified documents from the Bush Administration are now being declassified -- one has to pause and see that the events of September 11th, as Rev. J. Wright said, as the chickens coming home to roost. It's just a damn shame that 3,000 innocent people had to lose their lives in the line of fire.
For years our government has found it necessary to create a situation in which war would result in order to take control of a said country and its resources. We have also deemed it necessary to go into countries where the elections were otherwise fair (i.e. Nicaragua's general elections 1984) and fund insurgency groups to stage a coup d'état (look up the story of Patrice Lumumba - first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo).
We send men and women overseas to fight a war against terrorism but American, particular African-Americans and Native Americans have suffered terrorism at the hands of various groups and government policies for decades.
History 101:
- Andrew Jackson expelled Native Americans from their lands with the Indian Removal Act of 1830
- Ku Klux Klan (born out of the members of the defeated Confederate army), unchallenged, terrorized the African-American community from the start of the Reconstruction period well into the 21st century
- Charles Whitman, a former Marine, decides to do some target practice at the University of Texas
- The FBI/J. Edgar Hoover sponsor a little something called COINTELPRO to infiltrate and destroy numerous people who threaten and challenged the government in regards to its treatment of people of color
- Motivated by Waco & Ruby Ridge - Timothy McVeigh destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (I'm not saying his actions were lamentable or justifiable, in a way I understand his need to seek vengeance -- but not at the cost of other people's lives)
This list could go on and on but my point is simple - terrorist attacks on our country have been perpetrated for years by American citizens, not some foreign cell or group of religious maniacs.
I know some of my friends who will argue with me tooth & nail about 9/11 begin a terrorist attack but won't admit that what happen in New Orleans in August 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was terrorism American-style.
I could type for days & days - but this type of conversation is better with a group of people. So feel free to hit me up.
As I do every September 11th, I leave you all with a link to read a poem by Emanuel Ortiz entitled "A Moment of Silence" >> http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/Peace/silence.html
