We here in Devon remember today, and grieve with you. May the memory of that horror enable us to build a better world.
Roland and Lesley
Edited: my apologies - I had not meant to offend anyone. Lesley told me not to post here, but I knew better! Ro
Thank you. It’s on my mind today as well.
3,000 people died in 9/11. They were innocent civilians, just going to work.
9/11 furnished the excuse Bush wanted to invade Iraq. Since then the number of deaths of Iraq civilians killed in the war range in the hundreds of thousands. The US has brought a holocaust to these people. I cannot grieve for Americans killed on 9/11 without thinking of the destruction wrought on the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq.
Critics of American foreign policy have pointed out that 9/11 was a case of the chickens coming home to roost- that 9/11 was the result of American policy over the preceding fifty years. This is true. But it doesn’t diminish the sadness we feel for those who died in 9/11 and the families torn apart. It is a tragedy that has been turned into political capital. That is a tragedy in itself.
The best I can do, carrying their memory in mind, is try to get the troops home, realign foreign policy, stop American aggression and tell the truth about how horrible the Bush years have been for us all.
I agree with David 100%, but remind him that these opinions belong in the ProctoPub. Those are the rules that were set up for us, and I think we should respect them.
Thanks. Right you are. I was responding to the previous two posts. I’ll carry it over there.
It’s a day for being measured in our responses and recollections, whatever the rights and wrongs as we see 'em.
Amen to that. 
Oh beautiful for heroes, proved in liberating strife,
who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.
America, America, may God thy gold refine,
'til all success be nobleness, and every gain devine.
We are not there yet. There is much slag to be burned away, and perhaps we will never achieve it. But the gold is still there.
I do not agree with David. Of course he is right about the horrors of war–that isn’t what I mean. I do not think that the mistakes of the Bush administration are the first thing we should remember when we think of this day.
When I think of 9-11, I think of firefighters walking willingly into those twin towers, knowing they might never come out. They went in because people needed help. I think of the passengers who took action aboard flight 93 and saved many lives, including my brother, who was working at the U.S. Capitol at the time. (whether or not the conspiracy theories are correct about the flight being shot down, the passengers did take action, and they are heroes in my book.)
It is always good to look to the past and learn from the mistakes of others. But perhaps, in memorial, we can spend a day or two reflecting on the gold instead of the slag.
That’ll be $.02, please.
Tom