PAGE 3
NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E, AUGTEMBER 2002
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF 9/11 NOW?
CYNDYLEE
Humiliation breeds revenge.The old world cannot evolve
past the cycle of vendetta
Stopping Al Quaida was an international effort We
bombed their camps, ousted the Taliban and cut off their money
trail. Enough already
Now there’s talk of sending a quarter of a million troops
to topple the “Axis of Evil.” The same money could subsidize
U.S. automakers into hybrid auto production. That would end our
dependence on foreign oil and save lives
INTERVIEWS BY MICHAEL McCUSKER
TAYLOR DURKEE
Everybody had flags and was behind the country right
after September 11. Not only have the flags disappeared, it
seems everybody’s gone back to their lives and forgotten what
happened.
And it was supposed to take nine years to clean up
Ground Zero — but it’s been done in less than a year.
It was like a quick romance, and now it's over. The
essence is that everything came and went pretty quick.
PATRICIA LONGNECKER
ANGELA VAN CLEVE
My faith in America has been renewed since 9/11 but
the ignorance of some Americans has left me devastated. I
mean the lashing out at Arab-Americans which was petty and
undeserved.
September 11 brought Americans together and renewed
a sense of patriotism. I've traveled more than usual this year
and I'm glad to see the amount of security at airports. It gives
me a feeling of safety and security.
President Bush handled the situation very well, especi
ally when he stated it was an act of terrorists and was not reason
to hate Arab-Americans. I think acts against Arab-Americans are
also acts of terrorism. I think the people who committed them
need to mature and gain knowledge.
I have a 9/11 CD of all kinds of recordings — older
songs revised with President Bush’s voice on it between songs:
I Will Remember You by Amy Grant, Get Yourself Together by
Elton John, Only in America by some country singer. I listen to it
a lot.
LEE MILLER
The recent stock market episode reflects an implosion
of the top-heavy manipulated (not free) market. The pancake
of the twin (ivory) towers is a metaphor. How could we expect
the criminal elite to exact reform in the domestic economy or
provide security for the working class? Bush and clan are too
busy protecting their corporate posteriors. We can’t buy enough
weapons to save ourselves when the real terrorists are in Wall
Street and the executive branch of the government.
FRED ALFONSE
It seems we have to figure out how to solve the total
problem, not go back and forth like Ireland and Israel; you do
it their way and it goes on and on with no resolution.
Basically we re a peaceful seeking nation but somehow
we end up having to pull out the heavy duty equipment to deal
with situations like 9/11.
Stay tuned, I will have an idea for the solution next
issue...
MERIANNE MYERS
I guess my feeling about 9/11 hasn't changed at all. It’s
horrifying and discouraging.
As a government, we've handled it badly. I feel at this
point, the way things have gone and continue to go, that it's just
as scary as 9/11.
As people we are fear-driven abut the whole thing and
that is allowing the government to get away with horrendous
policies and behavior. The fear has set us up to give up many of
our liberties in the name of security. We need to realize there is
no security and we shouldn’t be giving away our freedoms and
the things we hold dear that make living here really fine.
I don’t want to live in a place that has a head of ’Home
land Security’. That is a spooky concept. It’s times like this that
make a person really miss Jimmy Carter.
We must not reduce the world to a pissing contest. This
is what we are doing.
JESSI DUNKIN
I am antiwar so I don’t agree with anything the
government has been doing since 9/11. Most of it's just media
propaganda.
I think the government is wasting our money, basically
just showing off to the world — We are this big superpower and
we’re gong to kick butt!
The whole thing is just dumb. George Bush can’t even
eat a pretzel without choking.
They say there won’t be a draft, but if it comes to where
the draft is imposed, a lot of my good friends would be gone,
most of my family and some of my teachers.
TERRY ERICKSON
It's all fake!
ROBERT LOBE
When 9/11 happened a fellow said things would change.
I said they wouldn’t, not permanently. But I think it's been used
! to’fiddce our OiviT liberties, and that can be permanent.
As horrible as terrorism is and 9/11 was, the concept of
living in perpetual war is more terrifying than terrorism.
A great terror is AIDS, poverty and world hunger — and
we aren’t doing a thing about it. It’s relegated to the back burner.
We’ll always have terrorism. Even if everyone is living
comfortably, there will always be terrorists.
THEDA SPACKLIN
When I think about September 11,2001, I still shudder.
I try to imagine what it must have been like forthose thousands
in the towers; shock, disbelief, the final relay to the end, think
ing, “I might get out", the cell phone calls, the want of another
kiss, another spoonful to feed baby, another minute at home
learning with creation. No! Too bad folks!
My being still trembles over it. My heart still breaks
painfully, like a parent whose child has acted out in murder.
I’ve sent all governments to prison for it, and I vow to do
the least I have to for those devils. I pray each night to secede
from this d/s-union. I pray to the angel god and goddess to find
strength; and find it.
I refuse to forget and call it forgiveness.
When the army for revolution forms, I'm in.
First of all, 9/11 changed my life and the life of every
American. We’ll never be the same
The targets of 9/11 were specifically the economic and
military center of America: the World Trade Center housing
large naughty greedy corporations; the Pentagon, home of
America’s war machine.
It was a shameful act on the part of the terrorists, and
it is shameful to me that whatever we did provoked that act.
I am appalled at the reaction. The blind patriotism that
is nothing more than political manipulation of the citizens of the
United States.
It’s become more complicated by the shame of the
criminal behavior of American corporations.
People aren’t making the connection because we are
being diverted to blind patriotism. We are allowing the govern
ment to suppress news without being questioned. We’re not
being told anything. For all I know the war in Afghanistan is
a computerized fraud and doesn’t really exist I don’t know
anybody who has been there I don’t know anybody who knows
anybody who was there.
People have bought into the propaganda coming out
of Washington, and in the name of patriotism we have become
blind rude people. The ‘Ugly American' has become uglier.
I don't go anywhere I don't have to go. I make a
concerted effort to be polite and courteous to offset blind,
rude and militant patriotism. I refuse to be an American with
a K'.
LIAM DUNNE
9/11 happened. It doesn’t matter what I might have
to say about it. It’s a fact, an event. It’s over. It’s history.
However, the inclusion of “under God" in the Pledge
of Allegiance does matter. It’s something that can still be
debated.
Debate is always good because democracy is a work
in progress Debate on points of the Constitution is essential
— the question is if we can reach conclusions in a reasonable
manner.
JIM HANSEN
This thing about 9/11 is exactly what happens after a
revolution, like the Alien & Sedition Acts after the American
Revolution, the ‘reign of terror’ after the French Revolution, or
after Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany and instigated
the Reichstag fire and blamed the communists. And the words
they use are all the same
All of it is done in the name of national or ‘homeland’
security. The USA Patriot Act is an example of how words are
used to conceal their real intent.
You can go back further. The whole feudal order was
based on security through war and based pretty much on the
abnegation of all rights for the protection of the liege lord. That
is what we are doing today — giving up our liberties for the
perception of safety. For what we are told is security.
JOHN LONQUIST
The morning of September 11 when I awoke in my
underwear and rubbed my eyes to watch the instant replay that
was continuing from when I was asleep and dreaming, I failed to
feel disbelief. My stomach groaned. Before my eyes was the
end of the pessimistic rainbow. It was all so bad I knew it was
definitely time for me to grow up
I always imagined something like this would happen
in my life The way the world is has been leading up to it. I just
thought it would happen later, when I'm old.
AMY CODESPOTI
TROLLING FOR THE TRUTH
"The mustard’s come off the hot dog."
-FRANCIS ’CHICK' HEARN (d 8/2002)
The dogs in the streets of Ramallah bark at the moon
between firefights, via a CNN live feed. American aircraft target
an Afghan wedding party and Canadian soldiers. At lest these
laser-guided “dumb" bombs hit exactly where they were aimed,
this time. Why is it called friendly fire when people get killed?
Now allies must be included in the formula for collateral damage
along with bewildered livestock and terrified refugees.
When 70% of the national treasury is spent on the
Pentagon and 60% of the domestic economy revolves around
supplying the armed forces, levies are excessive and the nation
is impoverished.The middle class is an extinct species. Business
naturally congregates around the Pentagon during a perceived
emergency because outrageous prices can be charged. It takes
20 lbs. of food from home to supply the troops 11b. in the field,
and speculation becomes rampant. The elite get rich while the
working person loses his/her savings, retirement and dwelling.
When only the elite benefit and the needs of the people
are neglected, the government is obstructed. The society is so
topheavy that it pancakes. For example, many innocent working
people suffered when the World Trade Center towers fell. It's a
metaphor for the future under Bush leadership.
The war on drugs is a war against ourselves, as if
Vietnam came home to roost; substituting a perceived foreign
enemy for a domestic one results in both doomed to failure.
One war started just as the other ended, when the troops came
home.
The evil is the legislated illegality, not the substances
themselves or their use. This policy makes drugs worth more
than gold. It destroys a generation. What kid is going to work for
minimum wage when he can make more in an afternoon than he
can in a month? It corrupts law enforcement. A policeman on
the take can make many times his wage. It imprisons a million
harmless Americans a year. We put more nonviolent citizens in
jail than any other advanced society. It stigmatizes people, who
otherwise could work and take care of their loved ones. It has
cost billions and is an unqualified failure. In places like Bolivia
and Colombia the government is destabilized and paramilitary
death squads plunder the countryside. The profitability causes
farmers to burn more inaccessible threatened rainforest. The
drug war /s terrorism by the Bush administration, both at home
and abroad. If Prohibition didn’t work against alcohol, what
makes these arrogant asses think it will work on anything else?
If Bush takes us to war with Iraq it will be a constitutional
crisis. Only Congress can declare and fund war. The executive
branch has arrogated power both after World War 1 ('Banana
Republics’) and after World War 2 (Korea, Vietnam, Grenada,
Panama and Desert Storm). Congress debates, resolves and
receives consultation from the executive branch, then blows
off its responsibility to fund and declare war. Just because it has
been done before doesn't make it right. The results are endless
military escapades, mercurial foreign policy and uncontrolled
deficit spending. Vital social programs evaporate.
Bush’s eyes are set too close together. This denotes a
lack of native intelligence. He does not understand power of the
Bully Pulpit He gives advice to allies he won’t follow himself
He repeats himself as if he didn’t hear what he said the first
time. Credibility is lost with both allies and Wall Street. He’s
leading the country to Hell. But don’t blame him entirely After
all, we elected him — sort of. Be assured that if he wins another
term, we might as well shred the Constitution and Bill of Rights
-THE TROLL UNDER THE BRIDGE
Since last September 11 we have seen a deterioration
of our freedoms — the freedoms we profess to protect by
waging war against the rest of the world People better wake
up and realize we are handing our freedoms over out of fear
Pretty soon we will all be suspects. Look at the FBI's
TIPS’ program on everybody informing on everybody else
We re all spies and being spied upon. I don’t even write my
mother E-mail commenting on my opinions of the war without
worrying about it being filtered through the carnivore.
So then I ask what is this war about?