At this very moment, the attacks began. I would like all of us to remember the sheer horror that day brought us. A horror that made jumping to your death from a thousand feet above the best choice available. Tears still come to my eyes whenever I see those towers burning. Or when I think about United 93. Or the Pentagon.
It is a sad anniversary of a tragic day.
But what is even more sad…and tragic…is that this day will always be tainted with politics. You see, I equate the attacks on September 11, 2001 with the attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. They are analagous as they both were acts of war, and they both shocked the psyche of a nation. Yet, when I think of Pearl Harbor on December 7 of any year, I do not remember politics. Sure, you remember President Roosevelt, and his speech declaring “this day will live in infamy.” But you do not remember it in an adversial political sense. Roosevelt was just an American, not a Democrat.
Indeed, President Bush could have achieved the same stature as Roosevelt. He gave a great rallying cry on the rumble of the towers, when he said “I hear you, America hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear from all of us soon.” Even I, a partisan Democrat, shouted “YES!” when he said that, because it was not a partisan moment then. It was an American one. Just as in 1941, Republicans rallied around a Democratic President.
But now, I cannot think of the attacks of September 11 without thinking about how the Republican Party took political advantage of the attacks, about how they morphed Bin Laden’s face with that of Max Cleland’s, about they used the tragedy of September 11 along with lies about weapons of mass destruction to invade a country that did not attack us that day, about how they called anyone who opposed this phantom war because they wanted to finish the job in Afghanistan (the country that really attacked us) a traitor, about how those who died that day have been used so cravenly by the Republican Party to justify anything they wanted to do, no matter how unconnected to the tragedy their goals were.
My memories of September 11 should only include the events of that day, and I should only be honoring the victims. But instead, due to the events of the last 7 years, I am forced to think about September 11 in political terms. And for that, I will always hate any and all Republicans. They have stolen something from me. From all of us. And I think that is the true tragedy of September 11.
Because, as horribly ironic as it is to say now, George W. Bush could have been a good if not great President. He was presented with events that make Presidents great even when they are not. He could have rallied this country. He could have led us with a single purpose. He could have stayed in Afghanistan for as long as it took to find Bin Laden. And we would have found him. We had him at Tora Bora. We could have captured him, either dead or alive.
And America would have had closure on the horrible events of this day. But now, 7 years on, Bin Laden is free, and our memories of this day have been invaded by politics.
This will be the everlasting shame of the Republican Party.
What is even more shameful though is the possibility that all those who died on this day have died in vein. I hope we never reach that conclusion. But with each passing year, it is becoming more probable.