I realize this is a digression from what this blog is about, but I feel like it's important to say nonetheless--however controversial it may be. The following is an essay I originally wrote to be published, but realized it was not appropriate for the outlet that I currently write for. It is an opinion piece--my opinion, and in no way represents the opinion of any outlet I write for.
What Year is it?
It happened on a crystal clear, late
summer morning one decade ago. Who could have guessed that when the
towers fell, our fourth amendment rights would start to crumble with
them.
I was only thirteen when the attacks
were carried out, but old enough to watch the slow decline of my
country; a fall punctuated by ever-increasing infringements of our
rights, illegal sweeps of ethnic neighborhoods, and coffins coming
home draped with a flag. Don't tell me that it's okay--that it's for
my freedom. Don't tell me that you think racial profiling is
necessary for our safety. And please don't tell me that no one has
died in vain--because the horrible truth is, yes, people all over the
world have died in vain--victims of a war on a noun--on "terror".
Over the past decade, I learned that
'doublespeak' is not just an Orwellian construct, but a tool that our
government uses to keep the majority satisfied when their motives and
actions are questioned. To fight the "war on terror" is
impossible. One cannot fight "terror" any more effectively
than one can fight "drugs" or "poverty." The war
is always fought against people, and there are always human lives
lost and destroyed. However, it was easier for us to sit back and
watch it happen if the human aspect was left out of the picture, or
if we could manage to convince ourselves that one American life had
more intrinsic value than the life of someone else.
We are afraid. Our government has made
us afraid; told us that unless we listen to them, horrible things
will happen to us, our loved ones, and the most precious thing of
all, our freedom. So we hide behind the fear of terrorism and justify
otherwise inhuman acts under the guise of national security. We have
'no-fly' lists, full body scans, and interrogations at airports.
Despite the fact that these have been shown to be relatively
ineffective, we know for a fact that they can be humiliating
experiences, and manage to douse us with a fair share of radiation.
However, we continue to lower our heads and mumble, "I guess if
it will keep us safe from terror."
We are entrenched in the Middle East
with no way to get out. We conflate our greed for oil with our 'war
against terror.' It's difficult to know what we're fighting for from
day to day.
Our economy has crumbled and our middle
class has been brought to it's knees. Employment, the Achilles heel
of a Capitalist country, has been severed for nearly twenty percent
of the population.
One decade later, here are the sobering
facts: our nation is poorer, our rights remain tenuous, and we've had
more Americans injured and killed fighting the "war on terror"
than were ever killed in an attack against America. Today, the 10th
anniversary of the most horrific attack against my country, I mourn
not only for those who died that fateful morning, but for those whose
lives have been destroyed as a result of every misstep our government
has taken over the past decade.
This isn't 2011. This is 1984.
