The 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks is in just three days. Much has happened in this country since that Tuesday morning in 2001. Tonight (Thursday), I will moderate a discussion about the political and cultural after-effects of 9/11 for New York Public Theatre's Public Forum program. The evening will offer a reading of author Richard Nelson's new play, Sweet and Sad, as well as insights from radio host and author Kurt Andersen, journalist and author Carl Bernstein and the playwright.
The attacks of 2001 remain unshakably frustrating for me. The US government's response to these events has seemed grossly insufficient and perhaps even negligent in terms of this country's long-term interests. I keep asking myself why the group responsible for 9/11 committed these acts. What did/does the US and its policies represent to these people? Beyond some vague conception of jihad and other fundamentalist Muslim madness that has been introduced to Americans -- and that has been kept fresh in our minds for a decade now -- I often think, "What are the changes we need to be making here at home in addition to the changes we seek to effect elsewhere in the world?"
I refer to real changes; changes in the demands we make as Americans on energy supply, infrastructure, natural resources, the environment and our own health in order to do what Americans have grown to expect as their birthright: to be able to go anywhere, do anything, buy anything and as much of it as they want, whenever they want.
A birthright that is now slipping away -- and quickly.
Is the current, rapid erosion of our standard of living in part the result of our leaders' reactions to 9/11? Did a trillion dollars worth of wars with no tax hikes, in addition to a corrupt, usurious real estate lending market, Europe's financial collapse, China's currency hegemony and their invulnerability to other common market imperatives (e.g., little to no environmental regulation) and a spate of fierce natural disasters collectively bring us to this brink?
Did our response to the 9/11 attacks need to lean so heavily on attacking others? 10 years ago, only a small percentage of this country's federal intelligence community spoke any of the languages of the Muslim world. Has our ability to understand that region, not just linguistically, but culturally and politically, improved? These factors and others like them matter, particularly in light of the Arab Spring and the recent widespread upheaval in that region.
But perhaps most important of all is the question: has American Narcissism changed? By that I mean, how the US has spent so much of the post-Word War II period believing we are always the dominant actor in world affairs and that others must always react the way we need them to.
This evening, I want to moderate a program that touches on the shared horror and grief of September 11th, to honor the lives lost and to celebrate the heroism and integrity of so many Americans in response to that tragedy. But I also want to talk about what we have learned: that 9/11 is a reminder about how, after that day, America is not the same and never will be. I want to talk about how we need to recognize that hard fact before it is truly possible to move forward.
As unimaginable and cowardly as the 9/11 attacks were, it's important to ask ourselves what we must learn from them. Not just about terrorism, but about our country and ourselves as well.
Alec Baldwin: A Postscript To My Last Submission
The real question is what have they learned? Nothing. We need to be vigilant and beware. Peace is not their agenda. I wish peace to all who want it and to all those fighting the vicious greedy dictators who have taken their freedom from them.
"No, that's pretty cowardly. You're assuming that the person blowing up doesn't want to die. "
-- And what are you assuming, Walt?
With all this America is now confronted with two major problems: a) An economy that is proceeding from bad to worse with a DD in sight, and an ever increasing divide between the rich and the not so rich, and b) An ever increasing misunderstanding between America and the Islamic world.
Both these issues need to be addressed, and both the gaps reduced, not just for the good of America and the Islamic World, but in the interest of the world at large.
Now I do not know what the precise solutions are for these problems as the complexities are far in excess of my level of intelligence. But I can say with a degree of confidence that a full fledged cooperation between R and D and a collective approach to understand and address the issues is a paramount necessity to find solutions.
All in all, AB has written a nice article, and if it helps to provide a platform to build a large scale awareness that a sea change is required in the approach and attitude of the Republicans, then I`ll be the first to congratulate him.
I am not saying that these interactions will actually lead the Republicans to mend their ways so that America can regain its earlier impression as the best nation in the world to live in.
I am also not saying that America will regain that status if the Republicans don`t mend their ways.
Your pontificating that these are faults of Republicans past and their alliance with the rich and powerful but fail to recognize that Obama's largest campaign contributors aside from the University of California and Harvard were Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan/Chase, Citigroup, Microsoft, Time Warner, etc. - you know, the little people.
The Dem's have control because they convinced the electorate way back in 2008 that they had the right answers... While your response was lengthy, at the end of the day it was little more than mental masturbation...much like the solutions offered by the current group in power.
As regards relations with Islam, it cannot be said that Obama is failing, definitely not when you compare his performance with that of Bush.
I am talking of the mistakes made in the past and it cannot be denied that in this regard the Reps have a big lead over the Dems. Perhaps the ratio is in excess of 3 : 1.
Regarding contributions to campaign, its the system that needs to be blamed.
Was I wrong in this?
Should not the common man feel confident in the leadership, that he is in good hands? Does not a crisis in confidence in the leadership – particularly in matters of economy – lead to a pessimistic approach, making it worse and worse for the economy?
Is all this so difficult to understand ?
More than a hundred books have been written on these issues – some of them eye-opening – and if one were to scrutinize this past history from a neutral perspective as if observed by a being from outer space who has watched everything, one is likely to conclude that America has played into the hands of `Politics of power` and its political leadership has faltered. It has consistently been making blundering wrong decisions both in terms of handling its affairs with the rest of the world, as well as handling the economy. Without doubt, it is the leadership which must be held responsible for the current state of affairs. A close analysis of the past few decades of American history will reveal that a vast majority of these blunderingly wrong decisions were made during the tenure of the Republicans, and the few wrong ones during the tenure of the Democrats were made all because of limited options available to them. The common man in America is very well aware of all these aspects , but appears to be helpless, as long as the rich and arrogant section continues to sponsor the Republicans and enables them to have a say in everything that is important. In short Democracy is not working in America for some time, as a collective approach towards governance is missing.
(To be continued)
It’s a nice article and I am somewhat inclined to appreciate it.
But I find Alec is only asking questions. These are complex issues.Sometimes he should come back with his responses to the reader`s views and give us some answers.
Past history of at least the last seventy years or so, along with a serious understanding of the laws of causation, must be taken into consideration before deciding on the course of action that the American people or rather the American leadership must take, if America desires to regain the impression it once had in the eyes of the world.
Once it was considered the best place in the world to be in.
In the words of Einstein: .. ``it has an international `psyche`. it constitutes the bulwark of the democratic way of life, it has demonstrated that individual freedom provides a better basis for productive labor than any form of tyranny, its political and economic position is so powerful that it can help the world by breaking the tradition of war from which the world suffered``…
All that has changed now. Having become rich and powerful, America also tended to become selfish and arrogant, selfish in the sense that it started grabbing a disproportionately higher share of the world`s resources and arrogant in the sense that in order to ensure the safety and security of its own people, America took recourse to large scale interferences in the affairs of other countries.
(To be continued)
And maybe we have less freedom now BECAUSE we refused to engage in self reflection and just said (as Ben Stein said on CBS Sunday Morning) "they're bad we're good."
Not liking American Arrogance does NOT mean that you don't like America.
As much as I disliked Apoaso's comment, I liked yours. :-)
Acting upon it does.
Some of us took stock that day and wanted to understand, to reach out and prevent future attacks -- while others wanted to lash out, kill and dominate.
As long as our reaction to the attacks remains heavily weighted towards the lash out/kill/dominate pole of this duality, we won't make any real progress towards lasting peace.
we can take our country back
1. US military occupying (and expanding on) Saudi Arabian soil.
2. US financial & materiel support to Israel & not making them stop settlements in Palestinian territory.
Religion, you'll note, isn't even mentioned. Now, look at what the planes crashed into because the rest of the clues are right there.
That's the introspection that's called for today.
And to remember those whose lives were sacrificed to their incompetence/negligence.
But how quickly everyone forgets...
9/11 was a sad day ...how many more sad grieving days before the USA feels avenged ?