“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” –Mohandas Gandhi

I’ve been sitting in my office on Wall Street – which is about four blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center – since before 8:00 AM and not one person who’s called on the phone or walked by my desk has even mentioned that today is the sixth anniversary of the day those towers went down. And what’s most surprising to me about that odd fact is that…it doesn’t surprise me at all. Like a lot of other people who were in NYC on that day six years ago, I’d just as soon move on from the continuous analytical overhaul of an event that no one will ever be able to erase from public consciousness.

It was a pretty crappy day in my experience for innumerable reasons. It devastates me still to think about how we lost hundreds of truly heroic firefighters, who died needlessly in a doomed high-rise that no one had any business running into. I hate knowing that thousands of innocent people lost their lives simple because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it breaks my heart that New York citizens like my friend George Tabb are fighting life-threatening respiratory ailments right now caused by exposure to the toxic dust at ground zero. What a fucking waste of life this all amounts to.

Author, Musican, Victim of 9/11, George Tabb

But way beyond all the needless death and lives destroyed by proxy, the worst thing that happened on 9/11/01 was that George Bush and his Puppet master Dick Cheney loaded up their excuse arsenal with all the “evidence” they needed to destroy the idea of individual freedom, turn America into a Nazi-like police state and basically ruin everybody’s lives. They call it the War on Terror. When pointing out the ridiculousness and futility of such a lame, feckless campaign comedian David Cross joked that a War on Terror was about at productive as “having a War on Jealousy.” Anyone who thinks that this country is safer since this administration started waging war on the world seriously has his or her head so far up their own ass I wonder how they manage to draw breath. A few minutes ago I was sent an amazing post from the political blog Daily Kos. It’s extremely poignant and expresses my feelings about the consequences of our Government’s abuse of the 9/11 legacy more directly and eloquently than I possibly could. So I hope the author won’t mind that I’ve re-posted her dialogue here.

Tue Sep 11, 2007 at 03:47:35 AM PDT

plf515’s diary It’s the anniversary. So, I hope no one will mind if I re-post something
I wrote.

I’m a victim of 9/11. I was in the building when the plane hit.

Compared to some people, I was lucky: I wasn’t injured. I kept my job. I got home easily. But compared to the vast majority of Americans, I am a victim. I had glass in my hair. I lost a year’s work, and some irreplaceable items. `My family went crazy for a while. My kid had nightmares. You explain to a 5 year old why (in his words) “They crashed into the building on purpose?” or reply to “I thought pilots were good people.”

But I am a victim another way.

I share part of this other victimhood with all Americans. I am a victim, not of terror, but of the so-called `war on terror.’ I am a victim of a government that is out-of-control. I am a victim of crushing national debt. I am a victim because I live in a country that went from having the sympathy of the world to one that is a pariah, an outcast among nations, a rogue state. I am a victim because I now have to `watch what I say’. I am a victim because my rights are violated, not by some nebulous and inimical group of terrorists, but by my own government.

*They do not speak for me*

But in another way, I do not share this other victimhood. My victimhood is being abused.

I have watched for years as my government – our government – has whittled away my rights, stolen my freedoms, and wrecked the constitution in the name of a false security. I have watched and watched and watched, as they have used my name – my victimhood – to make me a victim once again.

*They do not speak for me*

So, I will post this diary, and I will take action. I will volunteer. I will give money. I will make a difference. This is MY country, this is MY victimhood, and I will not have it abused. I am no martyr; I have no death wish; I hope that no terrorist ever strikes anywhere again. But the founders of this country knew what they were doing. They wanted freedom. They demanded freedom. They put their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the line to win freedom. And now it is reduced to this.

But it is worse even than this; it would be one thing to pay too heavy a price to increase our safety. But we have paid the price for nothing. We have arrested thousands of people, and let them go. We have spied on our own citizens, and found out nothing. We have allied ourselves with torturers, and yet, we are not safe. Indeed, by making our enemies unite, we have made ourselves weaker, and our enemies stronger.

This victim demands an end to the ‘war on terror’ that is really a war on America. Impeach the president