A reduction In freedoms (an American point of view)

9/11 was a day which shook our country (America) to its core. People who would use religion as an excuse for war attacked our great nation on the grounds of its greatest city and two other locations. In doing so we lost roughly 2988 American citizens, but their memory and the spirit of what that memory means will live with us forever. Years have passed but it is still something all Americans carry in their hearts as a tragedy and there will never be a shortage of tears for the victims of that day.

Sadly, since 9/11 we have seen the event exploited for many purposes. These range from excuses for exercising racism by individuals or small groups of people to gaining public support for the invasion of Iraq. Every time the event is misused the sacredness of that space in our collective hearts is encroached upon. It warps and twists the memory of what happened that day spawning countless other tragedies due to ignorance and ruthless ambition.

Harassment, discrimination and outright racism are always sickening and reveal the basest aspects of humanity and any civilized society. Since then many used that day to excuse incidents where they have acted like animals to vent whatever sick latent compulsions they have had. Lumping together people from one segment of society in the same box is a futile attempt at making sense of situations which can never match the level of diversity within that group.

Members of the American government played loosely with language and ethnic references to stir up "anti anyone from the general area of the Middle East" sentiment. They used this trick to rally support for a war built on lies. They even went so far as to say God wanted this war, as if any God would ever support lying, cheating and swindling the good people of a great nation to falsely lead its people into war. It was certainly a low point in our history.

The Bush administration claimed Saddam Hussein was behind the attacks as part of the web of lies and half truths. Now with an economy on the edge of a depression Americans air drop billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars per month into the black hole which supposedly is under control. The price of that kind of control has been costly.

During the 2004 elections the Bush/ Cheney administration kept up the lies and used the patriotic sentiment of everyday Americans to push an unjustifiable war. Day by day young soldiers die to contain the mess followed by this hustle. The deaths of roughly 2988Americans on September the 11th 2001 were wrapped into falsehoods leading to the deaths of more than 4200 American soldiers in Iraq.

The kind of awful politics which would use 9/11 to hawk faulty intelligence is inexcusable. The kind of politics which would turn Americans on each other to curry favorable public opinion for war is as low as politicians can get. How much farther from the kind of behavior befitting a great nation can anyone come?

As public servants they have abused their power worse than President Richard Nixon ever had. As voters we would be remiss in our duties to elect competent leadership were we to continue down this road. Right now Americans need people competent enough to handle the, economic crisis we find ourselves in and make prudent choices with regards to invading other countries.

The road we’ve been on for the last ten years has not left us in a better situation; we are worse off without a doubt. We have an economic crisis which needs someone with a strong understanding of economics to lead us out of. We have two wars raging simultaneously, and saber rattling with a third country which, if we as voters are not careful about it, could lead to a third war. That would mean a draft of the young men and women of this American nation into war. Let’s not forget 54% of U.S troop casualties in the Iraq war have been people under the age of 25 years old.

Americans simply do not have the military wherewithal to handle anything like that without a draft. The days of the Iraq invasion will be repeated all over where soldiers have to dig around in trash piles to weld pieces of scrap metal to their vehicles due to the fact they are not properly armored, not to mention a lack of personal body armor. This may even be worse as troop level reductions in Iraq have recently been slowed.

Let’s hope there are no politicians who would use this day as a marketing tool again. Let’s hope the memory of that day is not cheapened. Let’s hope anyone wishing to commemorate that day not try and trick us by claiming those fallen men and women have anything directly to do with Iraq or our current economic crisis. There is no oil in Afghanistan so they are not responsible for our high oil prices. There is no link to 9/11 in the days of post invasion Iraq and the Bush Administration has admitted this mistake.

There is, however, oil in Iraq and money being made from it. Instead of using that money the government of Iraq is using another source while they let the oil revenues build in their coffers. They are using the money of the beleaguered U.S. taxpayer to fill their accounts while they are slow to rebuild at best. That part of the selling points of the "surge" has been a total collapsing failure.

On the next anniversary of 9/11, let us remember the freedom to have officials which serve us and not themselves. Let us remember that Americans have the right to have elected officials who won’t use tricks and gimmicks with regards to the memory of 9/11 to sell us on more hot air.

It would be shameful of them to do so. Americans should demand better, and hope not to go backwards this year. The symbolism of that day stands for freedom and a reminder of how precious that is. For any government officials to sell it in order to perpetuate lies is a blight on the meaning of that symbolism.

To read more about my experiences with harassment go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.