Yeah. It's that day.

[silveradept]

That day. You know, the one that everyone seems to want to refer to when trying to promote their pet political project. Or the one they use when trying to make perfectly legitimate objectors look like they hate the country and want to join the Nazi party. (There. I said it. The forum discussion has degenerated to its lowest point.) The one that gets slung about when making war for peace. Yeah, that day. A day where nearly three thousand deaths have been used to justify more than thirty thousand (at a ballpark figure, no idea whether it's accurate at all or not) in various war actions and their consequences. It's the day that people use to run a smokescreen in front of things that probably need more scrutiny. (As well, probably as a day that gets waved around when people feel like enough isn't being done to prevent it from happening again.) It's the kind of day that gets tossed about if someone wants to justify utilizing surveillance tactics on normal people.

Here's secret number one about that day - I was exactly one week into my university studies when it happened. Secret number two: I was studying the French language that day.

Secret number three, however, is by far the best one - I never saw the towers fall. That's right - I was trying to wrangle with the French language when it happened. I was also unaware that anything had happened until I saw a news monitor in the student union. And then, I finally watched a little bit in the dormitory and figured out what had happened. Even then, if I saw it, it was in replay. Maybe that's to blame for my current liberal atmosphere. After all, if I didn't see the attacks happen, I must not have been charged with the patriotic spirit that everyone else seemed to receive. (Well, okay. There were some exceptions, but most of those people were already terrorists by the current administration's definition.) Yeah, so it's that day. If things continue on their present course, it might take on a new meaning, as the day when everything started to go wrong.

But I'm an optimist, really. I don't think it's going to be a problem. After all, we pride ourselves on being some of the smartest people in the world, right? Our public schooling systems are the envy of the world! Our nation is strong in providing jobs for American people at fair wages! And most importantly, our electoral system is fair and our politicians don't lie or try to cheat the system. We're the envy of the world, really.

Hrm... so I have to add an extra u here and there, and it's "al-u-min-i-um", and the alphabet ends with Zed, right? Okay. I think I'm set to be the most patriotic American I can be. I just hope there's someplace that I can be patriotic when I decide I want to be.

Comments

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

I watched it when it happened. I was in shock, but I thought it was an air control tower error. Then, the second plane hit. "WTF?!" pretty much describes my mind at that point.

Things got pretty cloudy before they got clearer. But I still don't think that our response to it was right.

[silveradept]

Things got pretty cloudy before they got clearer. But I still don't think that our response to it was right.

I think most of the country shares that sentiment in one way or another, regardless of whether you thought we didn't need to do as much as we have, that we've done it without sufficient numbers and resources to do it right, or that we haven't done enough.

Then again, our nation could be compared to Goldilocks. It's never "just right" for us.