A Moment for Reflection.

It’s September 11th and it’s a day of unveiling memorials and of speeches and moments of silence. It’s also a day that either party can use to twist to its own political benefit, and each does even while pretending it doesn’t. The sole extent to which the events of September 11th, 2001 should be used for politics is to show the difference in the policy choices each presidential candidate would make to protect the citizens of this country, and hopefully of other countries, from further harm from terrorists. As a Democrat, I also think it is fair game to point out what we see as the deficiencies in the way the current administration has conducted its 7-year response to terrorism. What I don’t think is fair is to use what happened to thousands of innocent Americans as an instrument of terror in itself to frighten Americans into voting for the Republican presidential candidate.

In that, I’m clearly in agreement with Keith Olbermann, who on MSNBC last night gave the most blistering attack on the Republican Party’s co-opting of September 11th, with John McCain and Rudy Giuliani as its spokesmen, that I have ever seen. It was almost shocking to see someone voice so heatedly what many of us never have the chance to say in a public forum – and even if we had the chance might be too intimidated to do so - that the Republican Party wields the terror of September 11th like a bludgeon over Americans’ heads. Without notice, at their convention they trotted out horrifying footage of the burning World Trade Center towers that has long been accepted as inappropriate for television. The message was clear: vote for those weak, unpatriotic Democrats, and you’re voting for your own, fiery demise. Vote for us, and we’ll protect you from this ever happening again.

There is, of course, a logic lacking in that argument. We had a Republican president on September 11, 2001, and the attacks happened on his watch. I don’t blame Bush for the actions of terrorists, but I do find fault with his response insofar as it included taking us on a merry jaunt through Iraq. McCain is committed to “victory” in Iraq, whatever the hell that means, but I do know it comprises more American money, time, and dead soldiers than have already been spent making this world a more dangerous place. I haven’t seen much to make me feel safer from the threat of further terrorist attacks. If anything, it’s the opposite.

The Republican Party espouses a politics and a manner of rule that has repeated itself over and over again throughout history. An educated, power-hungry elite uses religion and fear to control the less critically-minded masses for which it has the utmost contempt. It was the hallmark of the Catholic Church for centuries, flowing through to the monarchies of Europe for their own expedient use. The founders of this country organized this nation in direct opposition to such principles, but there will always be those who see the efficacy of that mode of assembling power and will find ways to modernize it for their own gain.

Still, we live in a time and place where there ought to be enough of us regular folk with an education sufficient to have taught us how to think critically – to examine the statements and actions of those who would seek to have the utmost power over our lives, and understand their motives. It’s not enough to stare like sheep at giant images of death and horror and believe that there is only one problem, and only one solution. When we do that, not only do we do ourselves a great disservice, but we chip away at the bedrock principles on which America was founded - the freedoms that we supposedly hold so dear.