I\u2019m writing this on Sept. 8, as the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 tragedies looms large.\u00a0 The media loves this.\u00a0 It\u2019s a chance to re-visit what happened, interview survivors, dig out photos, and talk about heroes.\u00a0 For the rest of us, it\u2019s a chance to remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard about the attacks, educate our children about that recent page in our history book, and attend commemorative services.<\/p>\n

For my part, I\u2019m doing none of the above.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to spend the day thinking.\u00a0 Thinking about our newest national obsession, the \u201cwar on terror.\u201d\u00a0 I think terror may be winning.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s astonishing to think about what our response to these attacks has cost our county.\u00a0 We have launched two wars (unfunded) in parts of the world where history would tell us we have little chance of success.\u00a0 We\u2019ve lost thousands of brave men and women and we\u2019ve spent billions of dollars with little to show for the expenditure.\u00a0 Few Americans are able to articulate just what it is that we are fighting for.<\/p>\n

Some of us have launched a full-scale public relations battle against Islam, a religion that includes peace and justice among its tenets.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a great victory for bigotry and religious intolerance.\u00a0 (What do you think would have happened if the attackers had been Presbyterians or Methodists?)<\/p>\n

The aftermath of Sept. 11 has caused the world economy to shudder and the U. S. economy to endure a seemingly-endless recession.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to sell a house but it\u2019s awfully easy to lose a job.\u00a0 We have more people visiting food pantries and fewer people with health insurance.<\/p>\n

We have a burgeoning Department of Homeland Security that pretends we are safer because we have a fence separating us from Mexico, but still hasn\u2019t figured out how to check the massive shipments of cargo that come into our ports every day.<\/p>\n

Our political discourse has deteriorated to new lows.\u00a0 Everybody is afraid of something (anthrax?\u00a0 wire-tapping?\u00a0 trials of Guantanamo Base prisoners on U. S. soil?\u00a0 gun-toting \u201cpatriots\u201d?)<\/p>\n

During the past decade we have watched our civil liberties erode in the name of safety, and we have shrugged.\u00a0 We have taken off our shoes in order to board airplanes, and we have pretended that makes us safer.<\/p>\n

The late Helen Keller, in her book \u201cLet Us Have Faith,\u201d wrote:\u00a0 \u201cSecurity is mostly a superstition.\u00a0 It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.\u00a0 Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.\u00a0 Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.\u00a0 To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.\u201d<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019ll think about this on Sept. 11.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m writing this on Sept. 8, as the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 tragedies looms large.\u00a0 The media loves this.\u00a0 It\u2019s a chance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":11571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,715],"tags":[563,1010],"yoast_head":"\n