TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY …
AMERICANS UNITED AGAINST AN ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES THIS YEAR, ONE PARTY IS SIDING WITH THOSE WHO ATTACK OUR COUNTRY
Twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper didn’t teach the band to play. What was playing when I was driving our son, Brett, to school, late—which was not unusual—was Aerosmith’s “Just Push Play.” I switched to NPR, and we heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. It was surprising, but we assumed it was just a weird accident.
After dropping off Brett, I went on to teach at Millsaps College. I had a little black and white television in my office. On it I saw the first tower collapse. By the time my first class was due to start, the scope of the horror was becoming apparent. I went into the classroom, informed the students of what was going on, and dismissed them.
As I drove home later that terrible day, I passed gas stations with long lines and prices far higher than they had been early that morning. The attempt to profit from an attack on our nation through price-gouging repulsed me.
By the next day, almost all Americans had come together. So did the world. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, there was more worldwide support for the United States than there had been since the years immediately following World War II. That support was later squandered by the Cheney-Bush Administration lying about Saddam Hussein being behind the attack and invading Iraq. The consequences of that foolish action may have been even more disastrous than those of the senseless American War in Vietnam.
The United States has been attacked three times in the last 80 years – on 12/7/1941, 9/11/2001, and 1/6/2021. In response to the first two attacks, almost all Americans came together. In the third, however, the followers of a major political party that has become a cult have chosen to side not with the United States, but with those who attacked the American Republic.
Today at the sites of the horrors on 9/11 two decades ago, people are gathered to honor the victims and to stand with America. A week from today at the site of the 1/6 horrors, people plan to gather to honor the attackers and stand against America.
On this day, we should all reflect on that.