As we prepare to beat our nationalistic chests on the anniversary of a horrendous tragedy we will obviously honor the sacrifices that were made that day but the senseless murder will continue. We love to boast about the abundance of resolve and tenacity contained inside our souls but rarely seem to acknowledge the spirit of a people in a foreign land fighting off hunger or an endless occupation.
It’s only an anniversary when it happens to us but we have become numb to the slaughter and the atrocities committed overseas by the American government or some other imperialistic country that we support. It brings a bitter and outraged tear to my flustered cheeks as I sit and absorb the senseless horror mixed with a hypocritical slant seeping from my television and infecting my gradually melting brain.
The cable news media would be more than happy to drill a hole through my scalp and through my skull so they can place a straw and just suck my brain right through into their portly stomachs. These emotionally absent talking heads have the ability to hide their tails underneath their expensive suits while maintaining their fake smiles. One day during a bad acid trip you might see a flying creature rip itself outside of the human skin of its human host piercing through the flesh of every part of the news caster’s body to reveal itself to our captivated eye balls.
The creature’s real mission is to desensitize us and put in a very narrow state of mind so that we will all have the same set of solutions to every crisis that we encounter. They disguise these motives when they show compassion for missing teenagers in Aruba and are foaming at the mouth to use September 11 to justify violent vengeance against any country that disagrees with their policies. These demonic flying creatures are brainwashing listless screen leaches into rationalizing the use of senseless violence to solve world conflicts and are apparently working for the Republican Party.
There just seems to be an apparent lack of compassion for the suffering on a daily basis and these news organizations continue to ignore issues that really do affect our dying civilization. We love to wax poetically about every tragedy that occurs on our dear soil and celebrate our feisty American spirit with loud speeches on top of a heap of rubble. We are in such a hurry to get our hands dirty and erect a so called freedom tower to give a big middle finger to terrorism around the globe as if we’re such a vigilant culture that will not negotiate no matter what the cost.
As long as we have our air conditioning and high definition televisions we could care less about what country the military bombs or what people we will end up alienating. According to the New York Times on August 16th on an article written by Edward Wong and Damien Cave, 3,438 civilians in Iraq in July were murdered during this endless war and no tears were shed. An average of more than 110 Iraqis in July a day was brutally killed but there is no anniversary or passionate addresses to the bruised souls inhabiting the chaotic territory.
The ignorant assumption that it’s the cost of war and that the civilians are necessary collateral damage is continually feeding the expensive machine grinding up innocent civilians. These are people we are talking about! Women, children and families are being blown up into tiny pieces and nobody cares about their suffering even though their death toll dwarves our suffering. I am not trying to compare the death tolls but completely neglecting coverage of a war just backs us into a selfish corner that exposes us as sullied nationalists that only interject when there are large quantities of money to be made.
Even though the brave underpaid firefighters and cops sacrificed themselves to save the lives of the civilian workers all we care about are our own safety and what country we want to take revenge on. Our anger and fearful nature seem to have clouded our judgment on that day but five years later we still have not learned our lesson even as the anniversary intrudes on our lives.
Repaying death with more death will oil up the wheels of war and keep them turning rolling over ashy skulls and breaking them into little pieces. I do not want to hear that garbage about the toughness and grit of New Yorkers and act as if that had happened anywhere else that the people would be curling into a ball and urinate all over themselves. For the record, I am a New Yorker.
The death and destruction being perpetrated in the Middle East against Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinians is just as horrific as any ordeal experienced by any other humans across the globe and should be treated as such. Speaking of neglected tragedies, how about the anguish and helplessness felt by the people of the Gulf Coast that is still struggling to rebuild their lives?
USA Today features an article written by Susan Page and William Risser on August 21st that delves deep into the issues that continually haunt the residents of this shattered community. The article sites a USA Today/Gallup Poll that points out that only 16 percent proclaim their lives are back to normality and that is just plain unacceptable after all the promises made by the government.
The poll also indicates how about a third of the community are dealing with the cold reality that they would eventually have to take refuge somewhere else due to the wealth of destruction. The findings have also revealed that the people hit by the storm mostly need financial support to rebuild their lives but we instead chose to throw money at failed reconstruction projects in Iraq and please do not get me started with that issue!
This is a full year later and we are yet to get our foot in the door of recreating what the city had lost during the devastating storm. This Katrina relief effort has become irrelevant and the situation in Iraq has been overshadowed by worrying about the 9/11 anniversary and the fear of more terrorism.
Do not be fooled by the news anchor that pronounces how great America is and how persevered on that faithful day or be deceived by the somber tone of George W. Bush because they simply do not care. They will use it to strike fear within us and this tragedy could best be summed up as the best thing that ever happened to the President so he could be the war President.
Every time I roll my disabled ass out of my freaky machine that they call a bed, you know that robotic hospital bed, I see a tragedy just as horrific as 9/11 but to my dismay I have a hard time convincing anyone else of that.
Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know. Email us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .