September 11th, what does it mean to me nine years later?

I spent most of the day just putzing around with my old jalopy, well between that, the pool and the couch. As I drove around I noticed more flags flying than normal, in the neighborhoods and at businesses. I heard folks on the radio waxing patriotic and watched television personalities do the same thing. I feel strangely detached from the ninth anniversary of 9-11 and I am not sure why.

I want to go back and take a look what our 2001 world was like, of course that was before the world of the Ipod. The first of them was released in October of 2001. The average price per gallon of gas was $1.46 and my electric bill was more than one half of what it is today. In 2000 the Federal funds rate was 6.5%, today it is .25% and while that might be good if you are continuing to spend money you do not have but if you are trying to save in a simple savings account or CD it SUCKS ASS! In 2001 we had no idea that a storm called Katrina would decimate our gulf coast.

In 2001 we were enjoying a time of prosperity and peace, as much as it pisses me off Bill Clinton did a good job. I wish the biggest worry I had about our president was whether or not he was cheating on his wife with an intern. I would have paid for a first rate, good looking hooker to entertain George Bush Jr. if it would have kept him distracted, instead of leading us into a ridiculous war on terror. The war on terror is just as much stupid rhetoric as the war on drugs. A war on an ideology, who thinks that it a good idea? I mean if we were to use the war on drugs as the example, why would we ever choose to war against an ideology again. When Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs in June 1971 I wonder if he would have ever guessed that it would cost this much.

Since the “war” on drugs started we have spent in the neighborhood of 35.5 trillion dollars and it has netted a little over 1,000,000 arrests. That is about $35 million PER PERSON, seems like a bargain to me. Currently we are spending over $75,000 per minute on the war on drugs, yep that comes out to 4.5 million per day or 40 Billion a year. So we had a good example for the cost and success of a war on an ideology. These numbers PALE in comparison to the cost of the other war against an ideology or the war on terror as it is more commonly known.

So as I reflect on the anniversary of 9-11 I see not only the state of our country I also think about the 5661 Military heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice and I am not sure it was worth it. I think about the almost 1.400,000 Iraqi’s who have died as a result of our invasion of their country. I also think about the nearly 1,000,000 Afghani’s who have lost their lives as a result of our invasion of their country. We have been desensitized to the sheer numbers. 1.4 million human beings dead as a result of the invasion of Iraq, that is like killing every person in the Jacksonville area – that is a shit load of people friends.

So as I reflect on 9-11 I wonder if the terrorists accomplished what they were trying to accomplish. Our country is in shambles, we followed the lead of our President who encouraged us to spend, spend, spend. We cared little that we were spending money that we did not have. We started building the foundations of our current problems at the instruction of our leaders. The government made changes to the rules and large banking institutes started rolling on the dough, taking advantage of the dirt cheap interest rates on money. They passed that along to us and we spent like drunken sailors and having been one of those I know how that works.

We have sunk so much money into foreign lands that we did not leave enough to fix the damage from Katrina, and that disaster is 5 years old. We have given control of our world over to people running the government who have as much common sense and give a shit as my dog, and my dog is a dumbass. I love that dog but I know he is a dumbass so my expectations are not high. My expectations are no longer high for any person holding elected office, except my sister who is cleaning up an office fraught with corruption and fraud and wasteful spending in a small town in Ohio.

So just in the lead up to 9-11 our country is talking about stopping someone from building a house of worship and a crazy man who is talking about burning some other religions holy book. I am trying to remember back to a pre 9-11 world and do not think I remember hearing about things like that. They may have been there but I do not remember them dominating the news. The 24 hour news cycle and our addiction to it also fuel a great number of our problems as well, in my opinion.

So my feelings about this anniversary are mixed, I watched a couple shows that talked about the events of that day and the ones that followed and I vacillated between crying, outrage and being inspired by the courage of normal Americans in a moment of tragedy. When I see the towers fall I still get chills and Goosebumps, my reaction is every bit as visceral as it was on that day nine years ago. I am also disappointed that we seem unable to catch the real mastermind, Osama Bin Laden. I served in the military and work in a technology oriented business, sorry but I refuse to believe our government does not know where a 6 foot 4 inch terrorist is at. Call me a conspiracy theorist but I refuse to accept that we, the most powerful country on the planet, can’t find him. This is an age that my portable electronic device can pinpoint my position within inches using satellites that are in outer freaking space. We (our Government) have known where he is every minute since that day, I am convinced of it. If we would have gotten him on day one there would be no reason to keep the war going, the military industrial complex would have nothing to do. I believe many in power had a vested personal interest in keeping the war going and that makes me sick to my stomach when I think about it. Of course it is way too late for that now, the time has passed that loping off his head would make a difference.

So overall, I am really disappointed and feel numb about the whole thing. We seem to trot out our patriotism in remembrance but we seem unable to hold our elected officials accountable for getting us and keeping us in this unwinnable war against an ideology. My heart is heavy for the folks who suffered on that fateful day but at the same time I am angry that our country ended up where we are today and yes I think the two are directly related. I did not fly my flag today, I refuse to condone the actions of my government in response to the events of that day. I said a prayer for the over 2,500,000 million people who have lost their lives since this boondoggle started 9 years ago. Folks our leaders have spent over 1,000,000,000,000 dollars (1 trillion) of the money that WE have paid into the system in the form of federal taxes. And that is just what the government has spent the real costs are probably double that.

Sad, that is how I feel, and not for what happened that day but what has happened since 9-11