Move forward from 9-11 in a better way than we have

On September 11, 2001 we lost nearly 3000 people, we respect their memory and the price they paid on that terrible day.

Why do we not also honor the more than 10,000 people killed by gang violence in the last nine years?  How about the thousands of soldiers who died since 9-11?  Or the more than 30,000 women killed by domestic violence since that fateful day?  How about the 850,000 people killed by car accidents and the 1,000,000 killed by drugs and alcohol as well as the 3,000,000 who died of obesity and diet related illness since 9-11?

Are these lives, these women killed in domestic violence, children killed by drunk drivers or innocent bystanders killed by gangs any less valuable than the victims of 9-11?  How about the tens of thousands of Afghan and Iraqi civilians who were killed since then?  The families of those who have lost since 2001 surely feel the pain equally.  Why the inordinate focus on this one event?  The focus on 9-11 is not about number of deaths or impact but on the damage to our psyche as Americans.  Operationally, 9-11 was a failure – the terrorists who sought to destroy America killed no more people than cigarettes kill every week.  New York’s Finest rescued over 20,000 people in the most daring and successful rescue operation in history, damage to the Pentagon was far less than terrorists intended and brave passengers gave their lives to stop Flight 93 before it ever reached its target.

Tragically, where the perpetrators failed in operation, they are succeeding in result, even more sadly, this success is one we are giving them.  As Commander Tom Rancich, former US Navy SEAL terrorism expert and Afghanistan veteran states:  “don’t do what you enemy wants you to do”.  Sadly, on this, we Americans have failed miserably.

The grand horrific spectacle that played out after 9-11 worked exactly as planned to those who perpetrated this insane crime.  Today we are more broken and divided than we were a week after the attacks. The unspeakable tragedy of the 3000 lives lost was far compounded by the use of that atrocious event as a justification for us to rush into not one but two ill conceived wars, neither of which has caught the perpetrators.

– An additional tragedy of 9-11 is the loss of thousands of American troops in wars with no apparent mission, objective or Constitutional purpose.

– An additional tragedy of 9-11 is the increasing Islamophobia in America to the point where houses of worship are being burned or asked to move.

– An additional tragedy is the thousands of people out of work in a slumping economy while we spend hundreds of billions on wars that yield no return.

– An additional tragedy is that the land of the free, land of opportunity so long marked by the Statue of Liberty has become one of the most closed, anti-imigrant nations on earth.

– An additional tragedy of 9-11 is increased Government interference with our Bill of Rights,  the onerous and unconstitutional PATRIOT Act, Americans imprisoned without due process or rights guaranteed in our Bill of Rights, unlawful search and seizure and increased interference in free speech.

-A tragedy is the paralysis we face as a nation, unable even to rebuild almost 10 years later while economic competitiveness of China, Russia, Brazil, India and the Middle East races by us at light speed.

The greatest tragedy of 9-11 is how our nation has changed, our inability to move and how we have undermined our core values of rights for our own citizens as well as our foreign policy.

The criminals responsible for 9-11 could not beat us by killing 3000 people. This loss of life is profoundly sad but not enough to beat us.  Los Angeles county gangs alone have killed that many in the last 10 years.  Great Britain endured similar sized attacks over 100 times during WWII yet prevailed.  No, the terrorists could not blockade our ports, take our cities or defeat us by any measure used in warfare or kill any more of us than die from junk food or cigarettes each week.  They couldn’t beat us, but we could beat ourselves.  Sadly, in some ways we have. Just as if we used deaths from gang violence as a reason to create new laws and a Department of Homeland Gang Security to suck our Treasury dry while infringing on our rights, we’d be losing where the gangs couldn’t win.  Just as if we used the horrible tragedy of domestic violence as justification to install cameras in every home, abandon or waive our civil rights, we’d lose where the criminals could not win. The worst nightmare for the attackers would have been if we simply ignored the event, rebuilt the towers and moved on with no change in policy but a team of a few thousand special forces and investigators tasked to capture those responsible. Had we done so we’d be $900 billion richer, safer and far more likely to have brought justice to the victims, thousands of soldiers would be alive and more would be at home with their families.

On this solemn day we honor the memory of those fallen on 9-11 and all people worldwide who lost their lives to so many causes.  One should be cautious about putting these lives on a pedestal above any other tragic loss.  We do not honor the memory of the fallen by using their deaths as an excuse to continue policies that cause more death, destruction and intolerance. Terrorists couldn’t beat us by killing one in 100,000 people but they can win if we destroy our own nation with weak policies.

Lets lay a wreath for those victims and move forward as a nation and with policies that honor our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, a nation that realizes the gravity of sending our troops into harms way and one that honors our principals of freedom, tolerance and equality.  Honor the victims, but don’t give the attackers what they want by continuing to use this event as fuel.  Lets rise from the tragedy of almost a decade ago as better Americans and better global citizens.  Let’s once again inspire the world as we did when we landed on the moon and so many times in our great history.  Lets think carefully next time we are faced with tragedy about whether the documents made by our founding fathers should be so easily cast aside.  Let’s move on toward creating the country, society and world we can be most proud of.  Lets move on to 9-12.

by Bruce Fenton