September 11

On September 11, I was driving home from three days of peace, love and understanding at Old Orchard Beach. Feeling rested and content having grabbed a fleeting piece of independence from responsibility and life's general boredom.
Passed a couple of places where flags were flying at half mast and I felt sad, reflective, still in disbelief even after ten years. It is so hard to accept that hateful religious fanatics (similar to many republicans who are currently running for president) breached this country's security and killed so many innocent people in such dramatic fashion.
Further on down the road, we passed a pick up with two big American flags waving in the bed of the truck and I was disgusted. There is a huge segment of this population who engage in mindless flag waving and call it patriotism. These are the people who operate from hate, who judge entire countries and religious sects by the actions of a few, people who will spit in your face or wave their goddamn guns around if you dare question anything about this country, people who use vile racist words to refer to President Obama, people who compare him to Hitler. People like Hank Williams Jr., who's music I will delete from my Ipod. I am not going to talk about Ole Hank, he is not worth my time.
You have to approach your love of this country intelligently. America is a great country and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else except, maybe, Jamaica, for obvious reasons. Are you with me Craig? I think it makes sense to be outraged at the scum who perpetrated so much suffering and death on September 11 with continuing repercussions to this day and to make sure they pay for their crimes, but it does not make sense to allow yourself to be overcome with emotion and decide that all Muslims must die or to believe that this country is innocent. By the way, I never use the term 9/11. We have to convert everything in this country into a jingle or a slogan or a catchy phrase; referring to it as 9/11 like a catch phrase trivializes one of the most horrific moments in this country's history.
We are at a dangerous intersection in 2011. There are intelligent people praying for a better way and there are fanatics content to spew hatred and threaten violence. Only one side can win. Mindless judgements can only hurt us. I was not joking with the republicans reference; many of them are religious fanatics with close minded points of view, who criticize and condemn without batting an eye. The same qualities we use to define our enemies.
This country indulges in many of the same unacceptable practices that we criticize other countries for and we run around pretending to a higher moral purpose. We used to lead the world in all the meaningful categories or measurements of civilization; now we lag far behind, even in categories like infant mortality. That is completely insane.
Love your country. I do. It may be hard for you to believe me because I am willing to criticize, but I do love this country. I can be who I am, I can do what I want, and even though it is shrinking and becoming almost impossible to do, there is still an opportunity to achieve your dreams.
But love it intelligently. Recognize it's faults and do what you can to fix them. Think. Don't get caught up in hate filled emotion just because your life is small and you need someone to take it out on.
This country has gone backwards because we have indulged in all the wrong things and ignored all the right ones. We are so far away from the principles this country was founded on, that if James Madison and Benjamin Franklin took a walk around, they would think they were in a foreign land. And they would probably be attacked for the way they were dressed.