Robert Peraza, who lost his son, Robert, pauses by his son’s name at the north pool at the 9/11 memorial site
Paul Krugman: ….. What happened after 9/11 – and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not – was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits – people who should have understood very well what was happening – took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
****
What do you think of Krugman’s views?
The Obama Diary 
Lord I pray that you ease Mr. Peraza’s pain and grief
His grief is palpable.
Children are never supposed to go first.
there is a time and place for everything and today is neither.
I think he’s right – apart from remarks by George Bush at the beginning, we weren’t called to be united and fearless, but to divisive and fearful. Look at Rudy Giuliani trying to make political points today in his speech. I think of Winston Churchill’s speeches to Britain during the Battle of Britain when they were being bombed practically every night. They didn’t cower in fear but worked together. We have been encouraged to fear ‘the other’ ever since. I feel a real opportunity was lost.
But I also think he is wrong. The truth of what happen is greater than the petty ways that people try to use it and can’t really be touched by them.
First time I’ve agreed with Paul Krugman in quite a while.
Sorry I visited the opinion section on the NYT website. There was the awful Maureen Dowd’s column, which I’ve avoided like the plaque for many, many months.
Looking forward to the President’s speech to the nation, from the concert. He’ll set just the right tone. Some of us are just floundering with what to say, and what is appropriate to say. Or not say.
Think I posted on another day that I researched what our country did to recognize the 10th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. It was a different time and we were embroiled in the Korean War, so the recognition was more on balance. I pray for balance for our country, most especially to allow President Obama to help us move forward, starting (again) on 9/12.
Right on target, Jacquelineoboomer! I attended the Memorial for Pearl Harbor at Punchbowl National Cemetary in 1952. I was 8 years old. My father was a Marine Sargeant and I remember looking up at him from my seat in the audience as Taps was played. He stood at rigid attention as tears rolled down his cheeks for his comrades in arms who had died At Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Saipan and Tinian. Even at my young age, I realized how much of a loss it was to all of us. On September 11, 2001 I recall thinking that this was the Pearl Harbor for the current generation. It is our responsibility to our children and grandchildren to send the right message about the meaning of this event. Fortunately, we have a President who carries the right message, and leads us as a shining example.
I’m inclined to agree with the first part of Krugman’s assessment, but I think we can choose to reclaim the solidarity we had right after the horrific attacks. I don’t think this anniversary has to be irrevocably poisoned. President Obama and Michelle are modeling the behavior they would like to see across America: remember the fallen and honor their memory with service to others and tolerance for differences.
Let this day end peacefully and with a focus on the national unity we are trying to reclaim in all the little conversations of our everyday lives.
Blessings,
Judy
Well said, Judy.
I totally agree. I think today was a day of few words, and only those that comfort. There will be plenty of time to point out bad actions, but today was for those 3000 families to get comfort from the rest of the world for the horror that their family members had to go through, and the unimaginable decisions that they had to make – plus for all those who witnessed the attacks to remember and take another step towards healing. No matter your position or belief about the cause or the aftermath, 9/11/01 was just a horrible day of unnecessary and heartbreaking suffering. The President just let the families ask for what they needed, and shared only words of comfort – an example for all, I think.
Completely echo your sentiments Theo.
Very well said, Theo67!
I agree with him and believe we must always find the courage to embrace the truth. Perhaps tomorrow would have been a better day to deliver this truth. Today should have been reserved for closure.
However in everything there is some good, if we can learn from this, and grow from this we will be stronger, we will have salvaged the good. Americans should remind themselves everyday, not just in tragedy, that we are stronger when we are united, that we have more in common with one another than not, and that love is stronger than fear. VP Biden spoke to the courage that resides in every heart, we need to summon that courage to love and be loved daily.
My heart goes out to the gentleman who mourns still for his son.
a video for loss on 9/11
from Andrew Sullivan – the video broke my heart
Never Forgetting
A father remembers his sons:
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/09/never-forget.html
*I love you* – the three most beautiful words, and such an overarching gift for that father.
When my son was an older teenager, he said to me, exasperated, one day, “Mom – quit telling me all the time that you love me. I know you love me.”
Now that he’s a dad himself, he tells his children every day, “I love you.”
And I smile.
Bush was mocking looking for weapons of mass destruction at the 2004 Radio & Television Correspondents Association Dinner with nothing but laughter from the audience. Krugman is 100% correct.
60 Minutes has a segment on the first responders right now. It is riveting. A doctor is recording an oral history from the first responders. It’s just unbelievable what they went through. These people are heroes and they should get everything they need without question. This just makes me want to weep.
Mostly true. I think the unifying force of it is present with new leadership. Maddow/Engel documentary talks about how quickly 400 operatives toppled the Taliban in the first few weeks post 9/11. Who did it serve to prolong the war? That is the question which should be asked….and answered.
I was sent this video from AFSCME, it’s called “We Remember 9/11”
As a country we have a lot of growing up to do. We get who we elect, and those that remain apathetic and fail to vote…well we get what we deserve in some strange way. Maybe the last 10 years have given us some lessons, but how much have we learned? “We the people” are the nation, a lot of heros and courageous people among us. The memory of 9/11 does not have to be “poisoned”, we can use it as a moment for transformation into a nation that reaches back and remembers who we are, and who we are not. That moment of transformation may take decades. But we are impatient, we want it now. Growth, like birth, is painful. I am just thankful that we have this President to help with those growing pains.
I agree with Krugman. I believe it was always Bush’s plan to go after Saddam Hussein. He said so in his first cabinet meeting – according to Paul O’Neill – which was months before 9/11. Also, the day after he kept pushing Richard Clarke to pin this on Hussein and Clarke had to keep telling him it was bin Laden. The Bush administration then consistenly used the fear of 9/11 to push through what they wanted. Guiliani would not be even remotely considered a national leader were it not for that day. He pushed his pal – Bernard Kerik – as head of Homeland Security. Kerik is now in jail for crimes committed as he took advantage of his position. I believe that the iraq war decision will be viewed by history as one of the worst foreign policy decisions ever made. The cost to our country – monetary, lives lost, prestige – has been enormous. I will never forgive the Bush administration for this.
I agree with him and it saddens me to no end.
I was just in my car and was listening to a rebroadcast (from 2 days ago) of Democracy Now and they had an investigative journalist on talking about the ground zero rebuilding effort and how the idea of America coming together and being stronger is not necessarily represented in that effort. The commercial buildings that are being rebuilt (not the official memorials) are billed to the tax payer through the Port Authority, funded in great part by tolls on the people who come into the city to work. The Port Authority decided to go with a Chinese company for the special glass, even though there is a great company in Pennsylvania that makes the same type of glass, but because the Chinese company is heavily subsidized by their Gov, they came in very cheap. Then the structural steel that is being used is from a German company although steel companies here could have done the work. One of only two tenants in the building so far is a Chinese company who’s goal is to promote Chinese industry and to drive Chinese manufacturing which is in direct competition to all the companies here in the USA. To use this “rebuilding” as a symbol of Americas resilience and to use taxpayer money to do it and then turn around and give the rebuilding business to foreign countries is like a smack in the face of America, American companies and American workers.
The reason I bring all this up is that so many in the last decade have used 911 to give lip service to the strength of America and Americans, they have used it to promote whatever agenda it is that they are pushing but in many cases that agenda is in direct opposition to what is actually good for America and Americans.
The carnage caused by the Bush administration to our Republic, and throughout the world, is vast and far from abated.
Complicit members of Congress, avaricious corporations, and a decade of newstainers continue to leverage fear and hatred.
But, Americans are increasingly aware of the fundamental difference represented by President Obama and his wife.
Today further highlighted that difference – their humanity is a powerful force being sensed and admired throughout the world.
We need to do everything we can to ensure that their leadership, their intelligence and wit, their grace, their enormous compassion and their loving smiles and hugs are what every American and every freedom seeking person in the world experiences from the President and First Lady of the United States of America.
Hopefully, those whom follow their tenure in the White House will emulate and expand on the precedence created by this President and his lovely wife. That will happen if Americans learn the lessons they are teaching us every day.
Yes.We.Can. … DO.More.Together!
Oh Bobfr, you are always the best at expressing what many of us feel, but sometimes can’t find the right words to express ourselves. I have lived under many Presidents and I think President Obama is one of the most genuine and compassionate President who goes out of his way to respect all Americans, including those who hate and despise him. The same goes for the First Lady! Yes, all of us need to “learn the lessons they are teaching us every day.”
Thank you nathkatun!
Very much appreciate your response and your perspective.
In my 64 years, this President and First Lady embody and exhibit everything one could ever imagine or hope America is, can and will be.
Yes.We.Can. … DO.More.Together!
Thank you for this, Bobfr. Your words are so true. I truly believe our President can turn around all of the damage done by the Bush administration. But he will need another 4 years. We simply can not go back to the destructive ideology of the republicans. Not only our nation, but the world need the leadership of our amazing President.
Completely agree, Debz.
Thank you!
Yes.WE.Can. … DO.More.Together!
He needs both a second term and he needs us to activate and exercise our civic responsibilities. I know all here do, but we have to reach so many more.
Bobfr I agree with Debz, you are an absolute wordsmith and impart so much wisdom and humaity in your words. Thanks for always inspiring in us what is best.
Krugman is right, and he is wrong. He manages to equate “the nation” with people who hijacked the issue to give them permission to start a war. Many of our people were not neocons, and did not favor the war in Iraq. Many marched against the war. It did no good. The nation was hijacked along with 9/11. I hate to be blamed for what Bush and the neocons did on the nation’s behalf.
Oh yeah, did Krugman forget about “The Day The World Said No To War”? Feb. 15, 2003 when there were Millions of us all over the Planet Marching and Rallying(in NYC: Orange Alert doncha know) against the imminent bombing of Iraq on March 20, 2003. The “media” under reported it..there were almost a million in NYC alone, I was there. The whole country participated.
I don’t think we should be eqauted with it, Obamaperson. I think the NYT, nbc, cnn…etc, etc has blood on their ratings’ greedy hands.
Yes, the Bush Administration and the MSM used the horrific tragedy to their own advantages and we the people were in too much shock to realize what was happening. But the memory of 9/11 has not been irrevocably poisoned because we now have a President, First Lady and Administration that is showing us how to heal and leads us towards a better America and the World. Now we have to do our part.
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Very well said, GGail! Thank you. We’d never heal if mccain would have gotten in. The M$M KILLS..and not in a good way.
I have worked all day, with no viewing at all, and only a few quick peeks into TOD, where all you lovely, thoughtful minded, heart-centered people have kept me informed. Thank you Chipsticks, for your devoted and sustained effort to bring us truth. Thank you to everyone for your open, intelligent commenting, and for reminding each other that an anniversary is just that, a time to look back over how far we have come, individually and as a people. For many of us olders, the vivid memory of the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK, shaped our early years, and gave us choices to make: to be more tolerant, more compassionate, more selfless, more helpful in what capacity we are able. No one of us can get there without the others. When my great grandfather came over from Ireland in 1850, I am guessing he had little more than the shirt on his back, and Hope in his heart. His courage, his vision, his willingness to work hard to raise a family, these live in my DNA, in all our DNA, no matter our ancestry. Let us continue to strive for high standards of thinking and behavior, I know we will! Blessings to all, and many blessings to our President and First Family. They do us proud!
HHDL’s message: “After Sept 11, yearning for peaceful co-existence.” dalaila.ma/ogSjpH
I have to agree with Krugman to a point. Those on the right have used 9/11 to wrap themselves in the flag, and spew hate and fear, instilling divisiveness, and worst of all, making billions of dollars off the tragedy of others.
Like I said on the 10 years on thread –
Brian Williams evokes fear saying of the aircraft flying overhead, “We will always listen to that sound differently now.” And the President doesn’t take the bait.
No, Brian. The aircraft that crashed that day are forever GONE. Those sounds are gone. The aircraft that fly today, are different aircraft, and they don’t remind me of 9/11.
There are plenty of things in life that are scary, and everyone is different. But I try not to carry fear in my heart.
I carry joy. I carry love. And I carry HOPE.
So rue, every word, Tally. When LOVE is on the field, fear retreats.
Tally that was my reaction as well to the video clip. Two human beings, both free to choose, two different choices, one chose fear, one chose hope and light. And that was my take away from those 4 minutes.
Sadly, Krugman is right………
The photo is heart-rending.
The words that touched my heart with that interview of Brian Williams was when the President did not allow Brian to pronounce fear on the people any longer during his watch. That just touched my heart to hear a leader say ,No, those are not the same planes.” Those planes are gone. I thought, if some child is listening, he or she would maybe find comfort in those words coming from the President. To me that was a visible announcement by President Obama stating, “We have taken care of the person who caused “those” planes to destroy lives of cnildren, families, first responders and a part of a country. Now Brian, we do not have to live with that fear brought on by OBL and his evil. Now is the time to focus on Ps. 46, which I thought was so appropriate for him to choose those words. We now build on ways to continue the healing process and not continue to promote the fear cucles that so many of you in the media, in the halls of Congress have held people in for years. That is why I am going to give as many hugs and comforting words to these families and the nation, if I can with all of my being. We needed this leader today. Now, he has to go and decompress tonight and try to remove another level of fear(JOBS) from the hearts, homes, families, children, college students, small businesses, and seniors in his speech tomorrow. Ed Henry has already asked me,”What are you griping about now?” I do not even know the ugly and hateful Ed Henry, but I simple asked him a question . See, this is why we must take this opportunity to do all that we can to re-elect President Obama for another 4 years. We need more of this type of healing oil for our hearts, minds, and souls in our nation. Let us pray, meditate, and speak good energy words toward our President tonight and tomorrow. God, please bless and give POB and Joe wisdom.HZ,
meant: fear cycles
Paul Krugman is spot on with his analysis of post 9/11. The Rethugs will stoop to nothing to have a winning narrative and use TRAGEDY for political gain and to manipulate the public. DISGUSTING and VILE. I am so glad we are done with the COLOR CODED ALERTS!! To this day FEAR MONGERING persists from the RIGHT. 😡 Obama/Biden 2012!!
One of the First responders being inteviewed on the 60 minutes last night said it all (sic)”People are still dying from what happened on 9-11.”
I have to take a somewhat different ttact here. Krugman is once again being a master of bad timing. Sometimes I believe him, and other people like Dowd, are just looking for attention. Of course what Krugman said is correct. But was this the time to throww those bitter words at a grieving populace? I think not. It’s very close to being in as bad taste as some of the things Coulter has said aboutg the widows. This was neither the time nor the place for Krugman’s remarks. He should have been sayi8ng them every day for the past 10 years, but NOT on the anniversary of 9/11.
I agree with Krugman… Hence my TV was off all day yesterday. I lit two candles and spent most of the day in silence.