Between this year and last year, the way I see 9/11 has changed forever with the failure of our legislature to pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the act of Congress that would provide healthcare to 9/11 first responders, who have been exposed to immeasurable toxins in the wasteland of the WTC in the course of duty.
The Zadroga Act and its failure exemplifies what America generally and especially the Republican party really thinks about 9/11. It is ironic to me that for a decade the GOP has used 9/11 to justify nearly everything it has done, and then when the time came to pay for its use, they turned around and filibustered what would be a demonstration of sincerity toward 9/11.
I find this particularly abhorrent because of the wanton frequency with which they used 9/11 as a cattle prod to goad the American people into accepting unpopular and dangerous legislation (Shock Doctrine): Rudy Giuliani himself used 9/11 as the entire substance of his presidential campaign in 2008, and the GOP has used it to justify everything from the two military quagmires in which we are currently ensnared to this day to the PATRIOT Act. Mind you, the seats in the legislature have not changed much between 2001 and 2011, so those same people who goaded us into Iraq and Afghanistan and who heaped upon us the PATRIOT Act in the name of September 11th are the very same people who blocked the Zadroga Act.
Look at the failure of the Zadroga Act: This is what we really think of 9/11. In fact, 9/11 is as existentially important to us as Jesus: We talk a lot about them, we make big shows and speeches about them, and then we pursue our everyday lives come Monday morning. But when it comes time to pay up, to demonstrate truly what we believe, we shrink away and ultimately fail to do the right thing.
The Zadroga Act did eventually pass, but only after Jon Stewart made a huge deal about it. It should have passed without question or debate.
There is one other nagging question I have about 9/11: Why do they care so much? Why do the GOP and the Tea Party care so much about 9/11? On the morning after 9/11, Jerry Falwell remarked to Pat Robertson that America itself is responsible for the WTC attacks. This is the same attitude that these kinds of people (like Michele Bachmann) always take when something bad happens. But what changed? The people working in the WTC on that day were probably more liberal, college educated, less religious, and more affluent than they are (not to mention, some were possibly homosexual!); shouldn't they have maintained Jerry Falwell's initial attitude given these possibilities? What changed and why?
Before I unleash my boundless cynicism, it could be that the United States was attacked not only by foreigners, but by a religion viewed by the GOP as alien and satanic. This may have something to do with their bizarre solidarity with a city almost as liberal as New Orleans. But the other reason (cynicism in five...four...three...two...one...) is that it had provided a miraculous justification for everything at that time the GOP wanted to accomplish, which would otherwise be incredibly unpopular. This is easy! All we have to say when people disagree with us is that they are Unamerican and that they support terrorism! Of course, this happened before (McCarthy and the HUAC in the 50s), so it wasn't a game that anyone had forgotten how to play.
The tragedy is that that is all 9/11 ever really is: We really don't honor it, not in any way that really matters, we just like using it to expediently justify reckless actions. Most Americans, it seems, are simply satisfied with this insincerity. We get an idea, whether it is a religion, or a political ideology, or some maxim, and while we like it, we don't do anything with it. Ideas require work and dedication. If you really believe something, you had better do the work. I wonder whether anyone in this country believes anything at all...
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