Pondering 9-11 nine years later

The 9th anniversary of the World Trade Center/Pentagon airplane attacks has come and gone. I do not have cable television and quite consciously avoided exposing myself to all media attention for this year's 9/11. I was vaguely aware of several events in my area that were organized to commemorate the hero's and honor the fallen. I did not involve myself. I went to the Port Townsend Wooden Boat festival with my dogs instead.
The events that occurred on September 11, 2001 are still very heavy for me. I have never lived in NYC and did not lose any friends or family members during the attacks. I never had to really live with what happened. I don't think about it everyday, but I think about it. I remember the way it felt to wake up to the live feed of the rubble and the death, the confusion, the anarchy of it. As the second tower seemed to disintegrate, rushing downward toward the earth with all of the violence of monstrous lahar, the pit of my stomach knew that men, women, and children were perishing, vanishing, disintegrating, floating. I also had to adjust to the post 9/11 world. A brave new world. An uncertain place. And I also had to live in the cold war like climate and watch as coworkers, neighbors, and friends became divided all around me. I was told on more than one occasion that if I didn't agree with the President and the invasion of Iraq that I should willingly relinquish my American citizenship. I was discouraged from questioning anything the government did. It was painful to see innocent American citizens targeted because of their Muslim religion or Middle east heritage. I watched in disgust as the American flag became a symbol for the most un-American behavior I could ever imagine. I watched in horror as the department of Homeland security was established and began eroding constitutional rights with the force of a damn that has burst. No I didn't live with it, but it affected me.
Immediately, a current of hyper-Americanism grew into a tidal wave of vigilantism. Understandably Americans wanted an explanation. We were emotional. We were grieving. We were scared. It is difficult to remain objective when one is overcome with grief or fear.               
What happened next was nothing more than war mongering and political posturing. Historically, nothing new.

But isn't that the point? History. Are we incapable of learning from history? The phrase 'Never Forget' has become a cliche and yet it is ironic because we forget everything. We forget that the FDA put a drug on the market that killed 30 thousand people. We forget that this politician campaigned on the family values ticket before he was caught having oral sex with that teen-aged boy. We forget this spokesmodel is a household name because her ex-boyfriend sold their most intimate moments to that porn distributor. Or this drug addicted hot mess was once the biggest sex symbol of the last decade when she had barely hit puberty. Collectively we have already forgotten Katrina, Haiti, Myanmar, the Tsunami, Georgia...

When we say 'Never forget' let's remember these events as they actually were. When I see a politician campaigning on the backs of the fallen, or an evangelist trying to make a name for himself while inciting violence, I have to ask myself how is exploiting a tragedy for political and personal gain morally acceptable? Why is it evil for someone to hate me but justifiable for me to hate them? Why is it that people who die on American soil are victims and heroes, but civilians and children who die in other countries are merely casualties?

I don't really know what history will say about 9/11. I can see that nine years later the history is still being written.