9/11 Anniversary

Today is the day we all doff our hats and solemnly remember the anniversary of a world-changing event. Of course, I'm talking about the 710th anniversary of the day brave William Wallace led his fellow Scotsmen to victory over the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Seriously though, it probably wouldn't have even occurred to me what day this is if I hadn't read this beautiful piece by John Hodgman, over at McSweeney's.

I've been thinking about our country immediately following the event, contrasted with where we are now. Regardless of how you felt about the everyone-must-have-flags-at-all-times sentimentality of that time, there was something to be said about the general feeling of brotherhood. For all his talk of being a uniter, not a divider, has ever an American president gotten such a free pass as this? I really do remember feeling a sense of unity with everyone around me, though that could be attributed to healthy doses of shock and naiveté.
But George W. Bush had the country united, his approval rating skyrocketed, and he never had to lift a finger. He could have coasted on that for quite a while. But instead he decided it would be the perfect time to abuse our trust.

Now look at us. We're stuck in a war that has no easy out, and which Bush himself has now compared to Vietnam. That in itself should be reason enough to get the hell out, except Bush thinks the problem with Vietnam was that we didn't stick with it long enough. The country is more divided than ever, and the current administration's ongoing campaign to subvert the Constitution and strip us of our fundamental liberties steamrolls ahead.

Where is the outrage from the right? You should be furious at this president. Since when did a government that wantonly spies on its own people represent the Conservative ideal? Time and again they prove themselves to be liars on almost every level. When is the last time an administration was so rife with scandals and moral shortcomings? This is the party of values? I don't think you could possibly set the bar any lower.