9/11 changed everything, he said, so we need to make some changes. We need to tap your phones if we want to, enter your house to search if we want to; we need to find out what you read if we want to, we need to put you in jail indefinitely if we want to, and not tell you why or ever bring you to trial if we want to. We need to torture your neighbor for information if we want to - oh, don't worry, we don't really torture anyone, but we reserve the right for the CIA to do so, because we want to. After all, you're an American, and Americans must be protected, he said. Most of us, anyway.
You can't tell anyone if you see us take your neighbor away though, nor tell your lawyer if we demand all your records. You can't call your lawyer if we detain you, or talk about why we did, even if we tell you the why. We won't call your lawyer for you, nor tell your family where you are. 9/11 changed everything, he said, and you don't want to help the terrorists now, do you?
We need to render the ghosts unavailable if we want to, hide away the bodies, both the live ones and the dead. Oh, don't worry. We won't do it on American soil. We know you wouldn't like that. We will have to put them both beyond the arms of the law, and the reach of the press. We're preserving democracy, you see, and this is what we want to do.
9/11 changed everything, you see. It changed us as Americans, it made us realize that individual freedoms are frivolous, and must be sacrificed for the common good, he said. No rights are inalienable, like the Bill of Rights promised. They're not, you know, they're completely alienable now, you see, because 9/11 changed everything. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, all are at our whim, you see, because this is what we want for you.
You don't get up in the morning kiss your children and spouse goodbye and go to work anymore, you see, nor do you go Christmas shopping on Saturday, nor to the football game on Sunday. You don't drive to New Mexico to visit your sister, nor back to Iowa to bury your grandmother. You don't cry when that sappy Hallmark commercial comes on TV, or get sick to your stomach when you hear that another 10 marines have died in Fallujah, or Mosul, or Baghdad; or that more Abu Ghraib prison photos have surfaced. England is our ally, but Lynndie England acted nearly alone. We'll not show you the coffins at Dover, because this is not what we want you to see.
You don't feel guilty when you shop at Spencer Gifts for some stupid gag gift, when you know that there are children starving in India, or Bangladesh, or Darfur, or whatever the latest famine area of the world is. You don't run the risk of contracting AIDS, or of being diagnosed with cancer, or just coming down with a cold; the stars aren't as bright at night, and the Golden Arches aren't as golden as they once were, so we'll go to the moon instead, eating salads and chicken. Life doesn't go on as it once did, you see, because 9/11 changed everything.
Trust me, he said, I know what to do in a post 9/11 world. It will be hard work, he said, and it will put us to the test. I know what's good for you, he said, give me your tired quaint rights, and your poor sons and daughters, I have a war to send them to. Let me declare Victory aboard aircraft carriers, in airplane hangers, Marine encampments, and at rallies where the crowds have been pre-screened for presidential correctness. Let not my advisors tell me unwelcome news, he said, let them speak only of Victory, and Democracy, and God.
9/11 changed everything, you see, including that notion of seperation of church and state, he said. The First Congregational Unitarian Southern Baptist Church of Latter Day Saints and Apostles will help you out with some groceries next week in lieu of Food Stamps, he said. Go ye down to the 9th Ward, where you can earn $5.25 an hour for work on the levees. Let man and the Army Corps of Engineers put together what God and Katrina have torn asunder.
All the king's horses
And all the king's men,
Couldn't capture Osama bin Laden...
9/11 changed everything, you see, and for a brief moment in time, that was true. For 3,000 families it was forever. But then the clock started again, and as bad as it was to be attacked in this cowardly way, as much as it hurt our national psyche, and gained us rare international sympathy, as awful as it was to have our virginity ripped from us by three planes two towers and a pentagon, as much as we want to believe that we're better, or stronger, or braver, or smarter than we were, 9/11 changed nothing.
We grow up, we marry, we have children, we die. In between, we do all the things that we've always done. We live. We either do it well, or we do it badly. 9/11 changed nothing, you see, but our willingness - hopefully for an even briefer moment in time - to give up our personal liberties, while we were still feeling vulnerable, and wounded, and in pain. The pain has subsided, the wound is healing, and it's time to come to our senses, and remember what tyranny is all about.
