I Can't Help It
I had every intention of staying quiet on the topic of September 11th. I've been to New York City once, and went into the World Trade Center, but save for a couple of friends who were in or near Manhattan on that horrible day, that is where my personal involvement ends. I didn't watch a minute of 9/11 news footage on that day, or on any day since. I don't need to see it to know the scope of the human tragedy that unfolded. I honor and mourn those that lost their lives on that day, and those who lost their loved ones. I do it privately.
Then I read this morning's paper, where it discussed our President's speech, where (and I'm going off memory here) he used the platform of this horrible, horrible tragedy to try and prop up support for his war in Iraq, mentioning Iraq sixteen times in fifteen minutes.
Keith Olbermann makes the point perhaps more eloquently than I could, but I have the same thing to say:
How dare he.
How dare he exploit the memory of these innocents to make a political statement. How hard would it have been to simply acknowledge the sacrifice of those who tried to save others, the loss of those who were killed, the holes in the lives of families. To honor and mourn them. And leave it at that?
I am sickened.
Then I read this morning's paper, where it discussed our President's speech, where (and I'm going off memory here) he used the platform of this horrible, horrible tragedy to try and prop up support for his war in Iraq, mentioning Iraq sixteen times in fifteen minutes.
Keith Olbermann makes the point perhaps more eloquently than I could, but I have the same thing to say:
How dare he.
How dare he exploit the memory of these innocents to make a political statement. How hard would it have been to simply acknowledge the sacrifice of those who tried to save others, the loss of those who were killed, the holes in the lives of families. To honor and mourn them. And leave it at that?
I am sickened.