September 11, 2010 05:24 PM UTC

9/11 IX

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• by: JO

I suspect that few here clearly remember December 7, 1950. Yes, it remained a day of infamy, and still does, but was it the focus of as much attention as the ninth anniversary of 9/11? What makes this anniversary special? Is it really about 9/11?

First, as a nation we seem to have been converted to Osama bin Laden’s argument: that the United States is at war with Islam. Lots of evidence of this, of which the aborted (?) Koran burning in Gainesville is but one small piece. A larger, more persuasive piece is the insistent notion that the United States is now, and always has been, a Christian nation, this despite the fact that separation of church and state was a key assumption of the Founders who organized a government that derived its powers from the consent of the governed, not from God as interpreted by one churchman or another, as had been the European model since at least 815. The notion of a republic was unusual among Europeans in 1789 (although the French were close behind); evidently, it hasn’t entirely caught on yet. Today, it seems, Islam isn’t the only religion that has been hijacked by political extremists.

Second, unlike World War II, we have not won anything like a clear victory in Afghanistan, which might enable us to put 9/11 behind us as we did 12/7. Instead, bin Laden & Co-Conspirators continue to conspire, with the occasional drone attack to demonstrate that all is not in vain in our efforts to track them down. In in the meantime, we have changed our mission from arresting or killing to bin Laden to establishing some form of parliamentary democracy in a land that is 70% illiterate, largely governed by tribal strongmen, and smitten by a religion that in no way accepts the separation of mosque and state. When and where, O ye citizens of a parliamentary democracy, did our elected representatives consult and agree on this change? Is the governance of Afghanistan really our concern? Who among us would nod and say that saving Hamid Karzai’s government was worth the sacrifice of a son or daughter? Is sending tens of thousands of troops into a country really the best way to track down and eliminate a small band of conspirators? The evidence is lacking.

Third,  the daily reminder of 9/11 disguised as “news of the war in Afghanistan” fits the political aims of a group eager to regain power in Washington. Their chief target is a president with two notable qualities: he has black skin and his middle name is Hussein. For the many, many Americans who can’t stand the very thought of the first, the second offers a convenient and acceptable target. The M word has replaced the N word, and for that to carry force, the M word needs to be built into a serious threat, never mind that it isn’t true. (Truth, of course, was the first casualty on 9/11.) To underscore this “threat,” a scruffy former Burlington Coat Factory site in Manhattan blocks away from Ground Zero turns into Hallowed Ground, never mind its distance and disconnection from any event more meaningful than issuance of tickets on alternate side of the street parking days. I am not suggesting a deep, dark conspiracy between Brother Gingrich, Sister Sarah, and the weirdo from Gainesville; I’m pretty sure they’ve never communicated. On the other hand, if you or I were to announce a plan to burn Bibles, do you think we would be on the evening news day after day after day? Or get a phone call from a cabinet minister? The themes of Teahadists, Birthers, and Anti-Islamists proceed in parallel, feeding on one another, stirred together in sluggish minds fed by Fox News.  

Leave it to first-out-of-the-chute historians, aka bloggers and journos, to identify a virus against which there is, as yet, no flu shot at Walgreen’s or Target. Some of us will say that Religious Influemza is a convenient, and not so coincidental, creation of those who perceive a need to divert attention from something else: the very real change in class structure in the United States. I refer, of course, to the shift of wealth and incomes to a tiny sliver of people (1-2%) at the top, and the gradual back-sliding (and not so gradual, in some cases) of what used to be called the “Middle Class,” but which might more accurately be called Everyone Else.

Others may have another explanation. I’d love to hear it.