Posted by
Bill Crawford on Thursday, September 01, 2011 10:14:15 AM
Of all the lodestones and markers of the great culture war I've encountered along the way, 9/11 is the one that cuts the deepest.
It cuts that hard because it originated with a true Greek tragedy. Thousands of innocent people died in a very cruel wa, at the hands of a small band of merciless fanatics. That was the origin of the unity we experienced on the issue then.
The strongest sign of that unity to me was the observation that the denizens of New York City sprouted American flags along with the rest of us. That is something I never thought I would see happen. And sure enough, six months later, the search was on in the isle of Manhattan for flag bling that wasn't so obviously a flag- I knew normality would soon return.
And here we are, ten years along, with a political base that won't even use the word "terrorism" unless you are sure to include home grown fundamentalist Christian terrorists. They call it "man caused disaster". They will not admit that radical Islam is even a problem, much less the central problem. They watch a deranged Major shooting up Fort Hood while shouting "Allahu Akbar" and avoid his religion like it is not relevant.
And if you maintain the focus that we all had back then, you are painted as someone who mindlessly broadbrushes an entire religion. You are a warmonger. A close friend of mine from New York once told me that she once held thoughts of angr after 9/11, but she "grew past it", which directly implied that my own thoughts were A) borne of revenge nd B) were only still there because of my comparative inability to mature.
I once thought that occasionally dragging out the video images from that day would do the deed of refocusing by rubbing our noses in it- the human brain always does what it can to heal, including the occasional memory repression. But now we are at the point where I think even that would be futile.
One side thinks it is a law enforcement problem, the other a war. One side tries to be constructive, the other thinks we are past that. Like the other cultural touchstones, at the peak of a culture war, there is little connection happening.
We are a democracy, and one of the safeguards of democracy is that it is far more likely to go to war unless there is compelling reason. The downside is, until such compelling reason makes itself clear, many dangers build. Winston Churchill railed against the Nazis in Parliament for years, but it took a while for him to go from crackpot to Prime Minister. If Hitle was a different man, Winston may have died a crackpot.
And those who lamented after the war about what led to it often would say that they should have stopped Hitler in '36, after Munich. But what he was and what he was doing wasn't obvious to the world then, and we were still a democracy.
Those who know me know where I stand on this, and how few words I mince regarding the eventual solution. But this is a democracy, and events have not compelled us yet.
That time is coming. The marking of ten years will not speed that, or delay it. Hopefully, it will help us refocus. One can only hope and pray.