September 11th

I am perhaps the one person in this country who refuses to refer to the disastrous date of September 11th, 2001 as "9/11." For one thing, it's ignorant -- people in Europe would equate that to November 9th (they put the date before the month), but, in true American style, we don't think of anyone but ourselves. Some argue that's perfectly appropriate in this case. After all, it was our disaster, which took place on our soil. Were we the only ones who were affected by it, though? Of course not. Even in France (France, for god's sake!), citizens shared our grief and horror and claimed "We are all Americans." We don't choose to acknowledge that. We choose instead to isolate ourselves from the world with regard to the events of that date. We choose to elect* a dopey president who appoints hothead military zealots and surrounds himself with advisors who train him to put on an air of strength -- something he really barely pulls off in practice -- and declares a war, on our behalf, against a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the supposed reason we were fighting the war in the first place! Go, America!

I choose to remain informed, to not blindly be led by blind "leaders," and to remember not only the significance of the horrific events of September 11th, 2001, but also the way the free world rallied behind us and was unified by those events in the days and months that followed.

Despite all the bumper stickers, it seems we've forgotten, after all.