So, it’s the fifth anniversary of 9/11. I could write a ton of stuff on this topic, but I don’t feel like it. I don’t own 9/11. I never did. And what little part I did own was taken away from me by the second team of 19 hijackers: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Hadley, Powell, Armitage, Wolfowitz, Feith, Libby, Card, Rove, Gillespie, Fleischer, McClellan, Snow, Tenet, Goss, and Negroponte.
They took 9/11 and they ran with it. They spirited away the national unity we all felt. They ruined any chance that I might look back at 9/11 with tender feelings, or as inspiration. It’s a dead day to me. I don’t want to forget 9/11. I want to forget everything that has happened in this country since 9/11. I wan’t to take an enormous eraser and undo it all.
Today I just took a day off and watched football. It felt good. It felt just like September 10th, 2001, when I watched the Giants lose to the Broncos on Monday Night Football. Tonight the Giants lost to the Colts on Sunday Night Football. It felt a lot better watching my team lose tonight, because I knew in the back of my mind that I was, in focusing on a meaningless sporting event, buying some time without all the baggage of six years of war, six years of torture, six years of destroying our budget and our image and our legacy and our spirit.
So, for today, I’ll leave it to you to say how you feel about 9/11. I like reading other people’s accounts. As for me, I’m just numb from it all. I can’t bring up anything profound or poignant to say. 9/11 belongs to George W. Bush. It doesn’t belong to me.
