9/11, plus a few days and years.

9/11 was the other day, and I read, watched, and listened to plenty of memorials about it.  I didn't have the time or energy to write anything.  But I was thinking about it.  I've written about my experiences on 9/11 before.  It was inspiring to see us pull together as a country after that, even as a planet- so much support, so much kindness, so much resolve to overcome the trauma and make the world a better place.

That lasted for awhile.  But even at the start, some people were saying "fuck all Muslims, they did this to us!"  Those voices were a bit tamped down, but grew ever-stronger.   Some of us realized that we needed to find the specific people who planned the attacks, bring them to justice, not just make it a crusade against Muslims in general.  But we got off track.  We lost bin Laden at Tora Bora, then moved on to Iraq for unrelated reasons.  I was disappointed in the direction both our government and some of our populace took.  We had a moment of solidarity.  Bush at worst threw it away, or at best let it slip through our fingers.  We had a great moment for America, but it didn't last long. 

I remember looking out the window in the days after the attacks and being heartened to see the flag still flying.  I remember going to the airport and not being let near the planes, wondering what would happen next.  I remember not hearing much from the government in the first few days after the attacks, and then seeing Bush speaking from some Air Force base out west looking bedraggled and confused.  Not very reassuring.

It's not all Bush's fault of course.  It's us, it's our tendency to turn on one another, to respond out of fear instead of hope.  To ignore reality, and attack people who are different.  American traits, and human ones, that sometimes cause me to doubt whether our species will ever really learn, and grow.  But I remember the times we've risen above, and I hope we can do it again.