Today, on September 11

[stromboli]

I must agree!  And I have had it with two words--Terrorist and homeland.
Terrorist--what, exactly, is that?  It is much like the word 'cult'.  It is all about your point of view.  A terrorist is always the other guy.  We are never terrorists.  What acts make a terrorist a terrorist?  'Shock and Awe' is not terrorism?  When this country declares 'war' on something, that war will never end, and a bunch of people will be making a bunch of money 'fighting' said war.  Witness the 'war on drugs'--it will never end. The 'war on terror' is the same, it will never end.  Our munitions corporations just love it! 

Homeland--god I hate that word!  I live in the US--not The Homeland.  Sounds like Nazi Germany, or Stalinist Russia or something.  Homeland Security.  What the hell??!!  We already had the FBI and the CIA; and each branch of the service has their own intel branch; and each state has it's own official intel unit as well.  And the National Security Agency is the biggest and baddest of them all.  How many layers of intel do we need? 

Agreed. The rhetoric that was pumped up after 9/11 and all the buzzwords to go with it. And all of it used as an excuse to make further inroads on our freedoms, from the TSA to the Patriot Act.

[Jason78]

It does seem like 9-11 was the day that freedom started to die.  You can't fly anywhere today without having to suffer invasive "security" measures.  When people are frightened enough to implement those kind of measures, then the terrorists have done their job. 

What we should have done was just mourn our dead and carry on just as before, with our way of life unchanged.   There might have been some call for legislation to enable law enforcement to act on intelligence in a better way, but that's about it.   We don't need detention camps.  We don't need the intelligence services spying on everyone.  We don't need the kind of scope creep where everyone is under scrutiny like a communist witch hunt.

[Desdinova]

Think of the billions, if not trillions, of tax dollars spent on war, intellgence, incarceration, "Homeland" security, etc.  If we took a fraction of that and used it to develop infrastructure, fund research, help the poor, train workers, and help small businesses not only here but abroad, think of the benefits we would reap.  Think of how our country's image would change.  This is the America we need to be, not an America that props up dictators, assasinates political tagrets, and exploits other countries for their resources.

[SGOS]

One of Bush's quotes after 9-11 was, "Terrorists want to take away our freedoms."  Then he passed the Patriot Act, which as far as I can tell, doesn't seem to have anything to do with patriotism.  But such was the hysteria that followed 9-11.  I'm not saying it wasn't a horrible event, but it sure hasn't been a "Reign of Reason in America" since then.  When people don't think, they tend to do stupid things.

[Munch]

One of Bush's quotes after 9-11 was, "Terrorists want to take away our freedoms."  Then he passed the Patriot Act, which as far as I can tell, doesn't seem to have anything to do with patriotism.  But such was the hysteria that followed 9-11.  I'm not saying it wasn't a horrible event, but it sure hasn't been a "Reign of Reason in America" since then.  When people don't think, they tend to do stupid things.

And the ones in power can manipulate the stupid more easily. Fear is a powerful tool for political leaders to get more to follow them.

[Green Bottle]

Quote
''And the ones in power can manipulate the stupid more easily. Fear is a powerful tool for political leaders to get more to follow them. ''

This is true Munch, and its happening in Scotland with Westmiinster and the no campaign doing and saying anything to try to scare the scottish voters into voting no to independence, but thats another story.

Getting back to 9/11 i mind the day well, i got a txt from my mate simply saying,  ''turn on your tv ''and when i did it was a shot of the 1st tower after the 1st plane had gone in and it was one of those moments in time that you'll never forget. a few minutes later the second tower was hit and i was just gobsmacked by it , stunned, staring at the tv like a robot.
the only time i ever remember feeling the same way was when Locherbie happened and the Dunblane massacre, these things will stay with me till i die.

[Shol'va]

Yeah I pretty much made it almost through the entire day without hearing or seeing a single reference. Then right around posting this thread (which is what actually made me post it), I decided against better judgment to check out my company's intranet page and several others, and then read the comments too.
Then I went on Reddit and, once again, against my better judgment, ended up listening to 9-1-1 tapes, watched clips of people jumping off, shit like that. I pretty much went looking to ruin my day.
I've avoided a LOT of the stuff that happened that day, and still kinda slowly taking it in over time.