So what has changed in America since 9/11? It would almost be easier to answer the question of what hasn't changed since that dark day nearly ten years ago. Practically every facet of our society was altered in some way, either by the attacks themselves, or, especially, by our response to the attacks -- a response that continues to evolve.
Looking back ten years later we can finally begin to get a sense of just how much the country was changed. Starting today, The Huffington Post will be examining the changes wrought by 9/11 from all angles.
Titled "9/11: A Decade After," the special section will collect stories from across all of HuffPost, from the economy to national security, politics, education, parenting, pop culture, and the arts. All our reporters -- including our nearly 1,000 Patch editors nationwide -- will be telling the stories of all the ways in which we're different since that day. The series starts today, with more stories being added every hour throughout the weekend. Some examples include:
Saki Knafo on 9/11 in film and Hollywood's attempts to chronicle the attacks.
Andrea Stone, John Rudolf and others look at what the 9/11 Commission recommended to plug holes in national security and where gaps still remain.
Jaweed Kaleem profiles a Muslim family -- with children born both before and after 9/11 -- set against the larger question of how young Muslim Americans see themselves today.
Tom Zeller and Lynne Peeples look back at the issue of pollution stemming from the collapse of the towers and the current struggle to win health coverage for those who have developed cancer as a result of exposure at ground zero.
Amanda Fairbanks explores how young people, who grew up with 9/11 as part of their lives, align themselves politically.
In context, of course, ten years is a relatively short amount of time in which to examine all the changes set in motion by such a profound event. But in the aftermath of the attacks, there was much debate about many elements of our society that we'd previously taken for granted. People were led to consider: what sort of nation do we want to be? How do we want to organize our communities, neighborhoods and families? What does it mean to be an American? What are the responsibilities that go along with being an American? Let's use this anniversary to once again look at these questions. The conversation starts here.
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
and make us cry.
As O said in his Inaugural: " we must pick ourselves up, dust off, and start over again.."
Peace to all.
The problem that I have with much of the media coverage of 9/11 is that in large measure it has become something of an infomercial to stoke fear and to justify the reckless actions that took place in the days, months, and years thereafter.
Or, that, at least, is what should happen.
Close the wound. We cannot find our feet. We are slipping in the blood.
Gaining power over the direction of money has become more important than governing for the people. And covert agencies are conducting war under the cover of darkness and almost without supervision.
What is an implicitly unavoidable conclusion is that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would not have been allowed to be managed in this way without that exploitation of fear.
There was no logical reason for us to invade Iraq because of 9/11. Even if there was even a glimmer of credible, substantiated evidence of WMD and the intent to use it, we could have waited until Afghanistan was stabilized. Instead we split our forces, opened up a 2 front war overseas, squandered international goodwill, and allowed Osama BL to escape. In addition, we lost more casualties and suffered much more long term economic damage due to Iraq than from 9/11 -- that's incredible -- and why isn't this highlighted more often? How could any leader have claimed and campaigned on "keeping us safe, since 9/11" when that leader's decisions actually killed and injured more Americans in an optional, delayable response to that terrorist act? Why is this still acceptable and not universally condemned?
It is still dumbfounding, and utterly, utterly unbelievable that this atmospheric smoke of confusion and irrationality still lingers from the ashes of 9/11.
and on the joint session of congress speech, and pick 10 events from column A and 19 events
from column B, causes me to think I'm watching a football game.
East vs West, Blue vs Green, Repubs vs Dems, NFL, AFL, pass, kick, tackle, repeat.
It's all a game we play with ourselves, a distraction we invent to help us put off examining our
beliefs, for that is what creates this world. Something so simple we refuse to 'believe' its validity.