[Vision2020] 9/11 - what should our reaction have been?

[Garrett Clevenger]

Does anybody else see the irony in George W. Bush's
"innocent", pandering reply of Jesus Christ being his
favorite philosopher, and Bush's actions following
911?

Though wanting revenge is normal, and perhaps wise in
some situations, didn't Jesus preach forgiveness?  One
would have thought to be scared not of Bush using the
full force of our country to take revenge on people
who already died commiting their crime, but that Bush
would have turned his other cheek, asking strength
from Jesus to withstand the onslaught from the hawks
to seeking vengeance.  Instead, Bush gave the world
his middle finder, and all the blood and pain that
reigned after pushing the button with that finger to
wage war.

911 should have been a test on our strength, not our
violent tendencies.  911 should have tested a follower
of Jesus to refrain from doing the work of the devil. 
Instead, 911 was used to justify what they already
wanted to do, what they have been doing all along:
establish a military presence in the middle of a huge
oil field and the enemy of certain Christians, the
infidel Muslims, who are waiting, encouraging the
Second Coming of Jesus, who I imagined is not too
impressed with either Bush, or the people who have
enabled his reign.

Maybe the hawks really want to have democracy there,
but considering their treatment of democracy here, I
doubt it.  They are fascists, intent on enriching
themselves, while exploiting the rest, squashing our
rights in the meantime.

The terrorists defeated America that day, at least in
terms of living up to the intent our Forefathers laid
out for us in our founding documents.

There will be other tests for us, more than likely. 
Will we have learned from the response to 911 and take
a different approach?

The solution: vote for Bubble Smith for President! 
More on that later...

gclev



[Vision2020] 9/11 - what should our reaction have
been?

Paul Rumelhart godshatter at yahoo.com 
Sun Oct 28 19:57:08 PDT 2007
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I've been wanting to ask this question for a while,
now.  Maybe it's time.

Think back to your personal reaction to 9/11.  From
how you felt when 
you heard about it on the news, to how you felt in the
days and weeks 
afterwards.  Think about how our country as a whole
handled it, 
including the different branches of government, the
military, our large 
corporations, our entertainment industry, and the
general population.

I did not lose anyone in 9/11, yet few national events
have reached me 
so profoundly.  I remember going in to work that day,
and feeling mostly 
dazed and shocked.  Maybe overwhelmed is a better
description.

I will start off by saying that I rate almost all
responses to this 
tragedy at about a D, at best.  Including my own
response to it.  We, as 
a country and as a set of individuals, mostly handled
this tragedy with 
fear-induced responses.  Why weren't we boldly telling
the terrorists 
that they can kill us one-by-one or in groups, but
they will never take 
our liberties from us?  That they will never force us
to give up what we 
hold most dear simply because they can hurt us one
time.  Why didn't we 
stand up as a country and give them the finger instead
of cowering in 
fear and allowing our government to pummel anybody at
all just to show 
we were taking action?  Why did we react in terror,
falling into the 
reaction the terrorists wanted the most?

How should we prepare for the next one?  I don't just
mean installing 
x-ray machines at sporting events or whatever, but how
do we prepare our 
reactions to these events?  How do we learn as a
country to come 
together as a bunch of defiant people rather than as a
bunch of 
cowards?  I'd like to think I'm not a coward, but 9/11
has made me doubt 
myself.  I really was fearing what they would do next,
instead of 
telling them loudly to go screw themselves.  How did
we get this way 
(assuming I'm not the only one)?  How do we change it?

Paul