Back in 2001, I was working at the SU Law College as the Web Guy. Had a really nice office with a window, a couple of the best computers available at the time, and, really, pretty cushy work (I wonder, at the moment, why the hell I ever left – though in honesty there were some pretty dysfunctional people there, and I got out at a pretty good time). I had NPR on the radio, as I pretty much always did at the time (can’t stand it these days), and they were rather typically unaware of anything that was going on, so I was, too. Until my wife IM’d that a plane had flown into the first tower. She knew it was an attack, right away, even as most people were thinking it was an accident or who knows what. Then came the second plane, NPR still not even mentioning anything (probably playing one of those insipid touch-feely trite stories they seem to pride themselves on), and the CNN website was unreachable. Then the Pentagon, and then – in the confusion – all kinds of reports of things that eventually turned out to not be true.

Then, of course, the towers fell.

All this was being described to me via IM (my wife saved the IM transcript, which I would reproduce here, except many of my replies were filled with expletives that somebody or other might find offensive, so I guess I’d better not). I think what I remember most about that time (in addition to watching the replays over and over and over) was the sight and sound (or lack thereof) of a sky totally devoid of air traffic. Where I live isn’t exactly a major metropolis, but we do have an airport, and (like most people), I’ve gotten accustomed to hearing planes in the air almost contantly. The silence was kinda eerie – but not as eerie as when the sound of military aircraft (our Air National Guard F-16’s were doing air combat patrol over NYC, so they’d fly in and out every now and again, and we’re pretty close to some other military facilities here, so occasionally a squadron of choppers or a large transport would fly over) would fill the sky. Then, you’d kind of look up, and ponder about what might happen (knowing it probably wouldn’t suddenly fly into a building, but, well, it was hard not to think about the possibility). Strange days indeed.

Everybody up here knows somebody who lives downstate – friends, family, lots of SU students. The Law School lost a bunch of alumni – one was on Flight 175, others worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, and Harris Beach. My brother – who of course we couldn’t get in touch with – lives on Long Island, and often was in that part of the city, attending meetings and training sessions at the WTC. A woman in his office got a call from her husband that morning. He called to tell her that he was OK, and that it was the other building that had gotten hit, not his. After they hing up, she never heard from him again.

So, here we are, five years later. Somehow, this bumbling stumbling fool who ignored the warnings given him by the previous administration, Richard Clarke, and in the now-infamous “determined to attack” PDB, became the “war president.” Racist Rudy became a hero. The Bushies bombed the stuffing out of Afghanistan (promising to “smoke ’em out,” if only we’d go out and do some shopping), but then abruptly quit, instead opting to lie us into the most ill-advised, unjustified, and poorly run invasion and occupation in our history (and that’s saying quite a bit, really). Now, the PR arm of the Republican Party has been given a $40 million propaganda prize in the form of this homage to Leni Riefenstahl they’re calling “The Path to 9/11.” Somewhere in hell, Joseph Goebbels must be smiling in steely admiration for what these people have accomplished.
Everyone (everyone with a brain, who’s been awake and paying attention for the past five years) knows what a fraud Disney is perpetrating upon history. Because, make no mistake about it, this will become the defacto history of the story of 9/11. Oh, there’ll be a bunch of hootin’ and hollarin’, of course. Maybe somebody will get sued, and after years and years of legal maneuvering, the parties will settle, and there’ll be a paragraph buried somewhere in the business section.

But in a few months – maybe even every September 11th from now on – ABC will rerun this lying piece of garbage (with commercials next time, you can be sure; maybe even release DVD version with “edited scenes”), and the “fair and balanced” media folks will talk (for a moment or two – maybe) about “alleged inaccuracies,” and that “some say” this “docudrama” contains factual errors, all the while repeating and reinforcing the falsehoods. And down the road, Bill Clinton – who has a lot of things to answer for, but not for this – and Sandy Berger and Madeline Albright will become infamous for allowing 9/11 to happen, and our blinking babbling pet goat of a president will be richly remembered as the man who took on this terrible legacy and…. Well, I dunno. You can only put so much lipstick on this pig (or goat).

Right now, those who are capable of critical and independent thinking know what thse people are all about. It’s amazing how willing they are to use the memory of the events of five years ago for their own twisted purposes. I suppose their plan is to sell the Democrats as a bunch of bumbling fools who can’t keep us “safe,” thereby keeping control of Congress, and thwarting any serious investigation. Hopefully, too much has happened, we’ve seen too many things, had the “terror card” played one (or ten or a hundred) times too many. Hopefully the people are too smart for this to keep working.

Counting on Americans to be smart just doesn’t feel like a safe bet these days. But maybe we’ll surprise ourselves and do the right thing. We had a chance to do just that, five years ago. To build something beautiful out of the burning twisted pile of death and hatred, and make this a better world (not just for Americans, but for everyone).

But we didn’t have a real leader in place to take us where we needed to go. Maybe, finally, we’ll realize that our “leaders” will never take us anywhere. It’s up to us to lead, dragging them kicking and screaming along behind us – or better yet, just leave them. To quote The Who: “We forsake you…Let’s forget you better still.”