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0911blog

Never Forget

Never forget, always remember, four words that once represented a time of national mourning and American resolve, have been weaponized, excuse the phrase, for political purposes, again.

The politicians all wear their best, well-rehearsed, somber faces, as they feign pain and sadness, elbowing ahead of other politicians to make self-serving comments in visits to the scenes of the 9/11 attacks at New York City, Shanksville, Pa. and the Pentagon and the comments are broadcast across the country so voters can decide which politicians meant what they said and which didn’t while political advisors tally up the scores.

In the days, weeks and months after the attacks in 2001, the country really did rally together with a common sense of tragedy and pain and understanding that the assaults were not just against buildings but against the American people. For a time, we flew the American flag to honor not just those who were victims of cold blooded murder in the attacks but also to show our abiding respect for the American way of life.

How quaint. The flag has become not a symbol of unity but denigrated into one of division. Obscenely large American flags fly on the same pole as Trump-Pence 2020 banners, something that would have been considered sacrilegious in years past when the flag stood alone and did not share its sacred space with the politicians. Pick-up trucks and motorcycles proudly post the U.S. and Trump flags, a statement by angry people intent on telling everybody that Trump is the one to lead the country and that any discussion to the contrary is un-American and worse.

Sept. 11 has been bastardized into yet another symbol to be used by the politicians of the Trump party to debase the Democrats as un-Americans intent on destroying the American system. But remember 9/11 for what it was; an assault against the whole country, not just the Democrats or the Republicans.

While we reflect back on Sept. 11, I have a lot other things we should never forget and always remember.

Think about the U.S. invasion of Iraq that was based on the lie that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, a myth that was only uncovered after thousands of young, brave and misled Americans and Iraqis had died in a meaningless war that has done no good but has further splintered the world into warring factions.

Never forget Gen. William Westmoreland, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger for lies they told the American people, when they low-balled the number of Americans who were dying and exaggerated the number of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese who were being killed, all in an attempt to rally the country to support the war and what was touted as victory just around the corner, while thousands of young men died far too early.

Never forget the years that the U.S. supported the Shah of Iran, while the government failed to tell Americans of the cruelty of the Shah’s regime, which later fell to the Ayatollah, ushering in a new world that continues to totter on the brink of war.

Never forget the Trail of Tears, never forget the president who ended reconstruction in the south and set the stage for the wholesale murder of freed slaves, never forget the shameful legacy of Jim Crow and the enduring racism that continues to lead to deaths in the black community.

Never forget George Stinney, who was 14-years-old when he was the youngest American child to die in the electric chair. He was convicted by an all-white jury that deliberated for just two hours of killing two young white girls, 7 and 11 years old. He always proclaimed his innocence and 70 years after his death, a judge overturned the conviction when it was determined that the boy could never have lifted the heavy hammer used to kill the girls.

Never forget the wholesale imprisonment of Japanese-Americans into camps in the western U.S. after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Never forget Allison Krause, a student at Kent State University, Ohio in 1970, who was among students protesting the Vietnam war when she was shot dead by soldiers of the Ohio Army National Guard.

Never forget Malcolm X, who was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965.

Never forget My Lai, Vietnam, where U.S. troops massacred more than 300 civilians on March 16, 1968. On orders of Lt. William Calley, the soldiers entered the village firing, though there had been no report of opposing fire. Several old men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the back of the head, and at least one girl was raped and then killed.

Never forget the massacre in three days in 1950 of 400 South Korean civilians by U.S. forces in No Gun Ri, South Korea. The soldiers said they acted out of fears that the civilian refugees could include disguised North Korean soldiers.

Never forget the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American solidiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Badhdad. Photos disclosed in 2004 showed Iraqi detainees being beaten, abused and sexually assaulted, a situation that fueled Arab and Muslim rage against the United States, and were used as a powerful tool to recruit insurgents in Iraq and elsewhere.

Never forget when on Nov. 19, 2005, a group of marines killed 24 unarmed men, women and children in Haditha in western Iraq. The massacre apparently was an act of revenge for an attack on an American convoy that killed a marine.

As with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, never forget any of these incidents and many, many more so that they may never happen again.