Twenty Years, And For What?

 I've read a lot in the last few days about how the terrorist attacks of September 11th changed our country. About how they brought us together. About how, at least for a time, it didn't matter if we were Republicans or Democrats, black or white, rich or poor, it only mattered that we were all united as Americans.

I wish I could agree with that sentiment.

Yes, it was like that for a while. For a short time, we temporarily put aside our competing agendas and our animosity in the face of something that threatened all of us, regardless of who we were. For a while, we were all proud to be Americans. If only it could have lasted.

It didn't take long for the paranoia to erupt. Prejudice, animosity, and outright hatred against people from the Middle East (and even people who just looked like them) reared its ugly head in short order. We now had an enemy against whom to vent our anger. Nothing unites America like a  "Them" for "Us" to oppose.

Unscrupulous leaders fanned the flames of this anger into open violent conflict. Driven by our collective need to avenge ourselves of our dead, Congress and the White House plunged the nation headlong into a war of revenge that somehow blossomed into two wars of revenge. Over the intervening twenty years, profiteers in government and industry have made millions, while thousands of young Americans have died in the mountains and deserts half a world away from home.

When we realized just how badly we had been hoodwinked, we just became angrier. But now, instead of uniting us against a common foe, our anger led us to fight with each other on a scale not seen for decades.

There was a time, believe it or not, when Republicans and Democrats could disagree without becoming disagreeable. Those days are long gone. Disagreement led to animosity which led to finger pointing which led to name calling which led to the current political climate. Our so-called leaders from opposing parties no longer talk to each other. They shout at each other, and the louder they shout and the more vitriol they hurl at the other side, the more successful they are and the more loyal their supporters become. People from the other Party are no longer Americans, or even the loyal opposition. They are enemies and traitors. 

 E pluribus unum? From many, one? That hasn't been true for a long time.

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the worst outbreak of disease this planet has seen in a century, all we can do in the United States is yell at each other over how we've responded. COVID-19 presents a greater threat to most Americans than the Taliban ever did, but we won't take the steps necessary to eliminate it because it interferes with our political loyalties. Our politics have literally become more important than our lives, or the lives of our neighbors.

In the midst of such division, I see little hope for the United States of America. We are no longer one nation, under God or otherwise. We are no longer one people. We have let 20 years of anger and mistrust and name calling turn us against one another, so that our tribal loyalties mean more to us than the future of our country. 

Make no mistake, neither side holds all the answers. If we as a nation are to turn this thing around, we have to learn to listen to each other again. We have to stop whitewashing our own sins while loudly advertising the sins of the other side. We have to commit ourselves to a path that leads to liberty and justice for all, not just the ones who happen to agree with us.

Yeah, I don't see that happening.

When the Taliban launched the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, their goal was to undermine America, or even destroy it if they could. All in all, I'd have to say they've done a pretty damn good job of it.