mahiwaga

It’s natural to look back, I suppose. We are the stories that we tell, after all. But the beatification and fetishization of this particular day by the media—blogs included—is kind of disgusting.

Who the fuck cares where you were “that fateful day”? You’ve obviously lived through it, survived. It’s time to move on.

The failure to move on, though, partly explains why the U.S. is as messed up as it is. Thanks to Bush and company, we seem to be trapped in a Groundhog Day-esque vortex, forced to live through 9/11/2001 over and over again. I can’t listen to the dolt that is our president speak simply because of the number of times he interjects “September 11th” into his speeches.

The irony is that 9/11/2001 is a blatant stain on neocons, a sign of their complete failure to understand the changed world we live in, and a sign that they have no conception of how to keep this country safe. This tragedy happened on their watch and I marvel that people are so stupid as to think that these jokers can protect us from anything. Instead, they’ve got us fearing bottles of water. Bottles of water, people! Idiocy.

I say, fuck Bush and his cronies. It’s time to take this country into the future, out of fear, out of medieval darkness, out of ignorance. If Americans don’t want to fade into historical inanity and obscurity, overtaken in terms of business and science and technology, something which we are on a trajectory to do these days with our out-of-control budget deficits and trade imbalances, our failing school systems, our refusal to accept basic tenets of the modern science-driven economy, then we must take up our mantle of leadership once again, remind everyone that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself,” and start innovating.

Don’t stay mired in your fear, in those memories of darkness and evil. The sunlight has triumphed, the sky is clear. Fear serves us nothing. We must face the future courageously.

This should be self-evident, but it seems that the media is hellbent on having us forget, that every time we are afraid, the terrorists win. Instead, be a soldier in the real war on terror. Refuse to be cowed. Prefer to face danger on your own terms rather than trying to hide behind the paper-tiger that is security theater. Remeber that we are Americans. Live free or die.