This email has been written as a general response to
the many 9/11 emails I’ve been getting. Some say that
we should turn our headlights on for 9/11. Others
shift the focus away from the victims and instead to
“our great country.”

Our country could be going to war with Iraq despite
the pleading voices of the entire world. I’m sorry,
but we just don’t have the luxury for remembrance
right now. There are too many disgusting things our
country is doing which we have to fight to stop. I am
sorry that people died, but come on. We are so
shocked, sad and angry for the roughly 3000 people who
died on 9/11, yet millions of people die each year of
starvation and we barely blink an eye. I don’t speak
for everyone when I say that I did not know anybody
who died on September 11th, but I still think that a
lot of people would fall into this category. And to
this group of people ONLY (for what am I about to say
does not pertain to those who lost personally on 9/11)
I ask: how can you sympathize so much? How can you cry
so much the week it happens? How can you pretend that
the tragedy is so close to home for you? How can you
do all of this, and then act completely normal when
millions of people around the world are dying
tragically every year; when thousands die in a train
wreck in India; when 800,000 people are brutally
massacred in Rwanda. People (not just Americans, but
people) died in the World Trade Centers. People also
died in Rwanda. If you tell me that the bond of
country is strong enough to make you feel the weight
of these two tragedies differently, then you’re an
immoral fool. If you have no response but you did cry
for 9/11 but not for Rwanda, then you are a hypocrite.
Of course, we’re all hypocrites and it’s never too
late to start caring.

The families of 9/11 victims have been given
reparations totaling over a million dollars per 9/11
victim. A million dollars! Of course, nobody seems to
give a shit about the fact that little children in
Kabul are starving to death because the value of the
old Afghanis plummeted as soon as the rebel forces
took over Kabul and started using the US dollar. You
see, poor workers and their families (a population
which includes many children), who typically dealt
only in Afghanis, were left with nothing when the
value of the Afghani dropped off to nothing (The US
dollar is currently worth 52,000 old Afghanis). The
new Afghani, an attempt at a stable new Afgan currency
in the country, has only been in circulation as of
last Tuesday (Sept 3rd). 

And then we talk about Weapons of Mass Destruction in
Iraq. Of course, there is no substantial evidence of
any military biological or nuclear weapons, not to
mention any significant possibility of any sort of a
delivery system which would allow the deployment of
these weapons across the Atlantic Ocean. Weapons of
Mass Destruction. It’s a funny phrase coming from the
only country in the world to use the Atomic bomb; a
country guilty of slavery, the Trail of Tears,
Japanese internment, the Iran-Contra Affair, Bay of
Pigs; a country which has stockpiles of militarized
Anthrax. What the fuck are WE doing with militarized
anthrax!? And how can we expect (or force) other
countries to disarm when we still have nuclear and
biological weapons.

The line of action taken by the 9/11 terrorists was
awful and it should never be used. But it isn’t a
shock to me. The United States’ self-interested
worldwide imperialism is utterly oppressive. It is
despicable how we make the rich richer and the poor
poorer in many Middle Eastern countries by empowering
an elite few to sell us the oil we need at the price
we want. It is despicable how we kept “detainees”
without given them the rights of a prisoner of war.
Just a couple more things for the list I guess. To
give an analogy, the United States’ is like a
playground bully who shakes everyone down for their
lunch money (except our cronies). We keep chains and
knives with us but won’t let anyone else have any. And
now when some little kid, in frustration and anger,
throws a rock at us and does a little damage, we act
like it was the most absurd and evil thing that could
ever happen and that we are a little prince who only
brings good to the playground.

Well the time for quiet compliance is over. We need to
stop Bush’s war on Iraq. We have to stop our country’s
arrogance and our country’s hypocrisy. If anyone wants
to make a difference, forward this to others and/or
email me, unless, of course, you’re still worried
about headlights.

-Dan