I'm sorry for the people who died on 9/11.
I'm sorry we were told to shop after 9/11 and that many of us chose to consume beyond our means.
I'm sorry that some of the financial firms in Manhattan chose to cheat people and to rip people off.
I'm sorry we sometimes used 9/11 to scapegoat Muslims and torture people.
I'm sorry we used 9/11 to start wars based on lies, kill civilians, and then treat our veterans like crap.
We had choices to make about how we would honor the dead from 9/11 and honor our soldiers fighting abroad.
I'm sorry and ashamed that this is how our nation chose to act after we were attacked by the terrorists on 9/11/01.
The good news is that we always have the ability to learn from the past, and to make better choices for the future.
P.S. I'm not blaming Bush. I'm blaming his appointees and the MIC.
Damn, if only we had listened to Eisenhower when he warned us of this.
According to people who KNOW things like this. Since 9/11 we have TOTALLY WASTED $540 BILLION at the Department of Homeland Security for things that didn't work, don,t work, are totally unecessary, generally wasteful, and other things that were just plain stupid ideas to begin with that fasll into ALL the categories above. That's HALF A TRILLION DOLLAR$$$
Gee, who exactly was in charge of that????
Plus, we've spent a good TRIILIN$$$ on two wars with very questionable results, EXCEPT the we did kill bin Laden. Albeit we spent ten years looking for him to accomplish that.
Were the terrorists successful?????? Hold on a minute, I'm at the airport, I gotta take off my shoes and be subjected to a full body scan and a pat down because, oh, gotta take off my belt.
Bubbabobcat,
Sorry about you're friend, and that's wonderful that you're class started a fundraiser in his honor. Each one of the 2000 victims who died, had a circle of people that knew them, or their families. If you just assume each victim's circle was one thousand people, then that would mean 2 million people knew a victim or a family member of one of the victims.
My oldest and best friend knew several of the Traders that were killed. This event was personal for millions and millions of Americans.
Like with most horrific events there is the initial reaction and then years down the line perspective.
Dan Bergstein was horrifically and tragically murdered in the North WTC Tower on 9/11/01. We weren’t close in high school but we were friends during our time there and spent quite a bit of down time together at lunch hour, in home room, during shared “open” class periods where we were free to just hang out and shoot the breeze while officially ostensibly “studying”. Even as still developing and awkward young teenagers, Danny was always an easygoing, emotionally centered, self confident, open minded, and generally nice guy. He made friends easily and was genuinely friendly to any and all who met his acquaintance during a developmental phase where kids can typically be judgmental, cliquish, dismissive, and otherwise quite cruel.
Of course we went our separate ways after graduation and lost touch in the intervening years. We caught up at our 20th HS reunion and introduced our spouses to each other. My wife and I being dedicated animal rescue volunteers, the conversation inevitably veered towards our passions. Danny made us feel good about appreciating and wanting to understand what was important to us and what motivated our passions. Even 20 years removed with no contact whatsoever, he could still slip so easily and comfortably into the role of the sincerely supportive friend.
Less than a year later Danny was unnecessarily and cruelly taken from his family and friends far too soon.
Saturday night on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9-11, our class held a mini reunion and fundraiser for the scholarship that was created in Danny’s name and in honor of his memory.
http://www.stuy80.com/scholarshipfund/home.html
His wife and two “kids” attended the fundraiser. I hadn’t seen them in 10 years since Danny’s memorial in 2001. His kids were just 4 And 6 then. They have now grown to be two wonderfully intelligent, mature beyond their years, kind, and self possessed young adults. Definitely chips off the old block. It is just so sad that these 2 wonderful children grew up and matured without the loving presence of their dear father. Alicia has done a terrific job of raising these two wonderful young people by herself. I’m sure that Danny is looking from above and quite proud of what his family has accomplished and overcome.
I still cannot to this day understand, accept, or make sense of this horrible assault and tragedy and the tremendous unending sense of loss and sorrow. I don’t think I ever will.