9/11 was a tragic day for America.
I was living in Austria during the Bush years when America invaded Iraq. I watched in horror as Bush told the rest of the world to sit down and shut up while our military bombed innocent people. I was angry that he authorized an invasion of Iraq without unequivocal proof that Iraq was responsible for the attack.
I didn’t spend a lot of time engaging in politics when I lived in Austria. I was thankful that I wasn’t in my beloved country while Bush was in office. When I did engage, I wondered at the insanity of it all and the hoop-jumping the Bush administration did to break international law, go lone wolf, and exact revenge. In the end, it was all a power grab meant to secure control of oil in the middle east. It was a fraudulent use of taxpayer money and lives.
At first, I was angry that the attack on the towers happened, and I still am, but then I realized what happened. Our military was dipping its hands in the bee’s nest to get honey (🛢️), and the bees retaliated in kind. We were stung hard, and then we smashed the beehive so we could take ALL the honey without getting stung. We went there to control the honey production and make sure we could get more whenever we wanted. It was all based on greed and the accumulation of power.
I mourn the loss of human life on that day. It was a horrible day that should have taught us to let people live a life of self-determination. You know the thing we say is a great aspect of a representative republic with democratic systems. Spoiler alert, we Americans did not learn the lesson.
I hope 9/11 is full of reflection about who we want to be as a country. Do we want to be the country that truly believes that people can self-govern? Do we want to be the country that does the right thing even when it’s hard? Or do we want to take shortcuts to gain power in the world so we can dominate other cultures for our benefit?
I know I want to be a friend to the rest of the world. I want to be the country that far and away donates vaccines to poorer nations so they can live to fight another day. I want to be the country that truly believes in the principles laid down by the constitution. I want to live with strong people who understand integrity’s value and have a burning desire to save the republic.