I don't miss 9/12

 

I don't miss 9/12.

There I said it.

I may be alone in my feelings about the aftermath of our country's most horrific terrorist attack, but I remember 9/12 rather differently than the many others who are posting on Facebook about how united the United States.

I remember Islamophobia, so much that anyone who was Asian and brown had to fear for their safety from being assaulted by simpletons. I recall people who were baffled in our intelligence system's massive failure, and others who quickly explained it away. I recollect some who were confident the then administration would lead the world in a united front to seek justice against those responsible, but not shockingly, there were others skeptical of their abilities. Many exploited the event, claiming it was a conspiracy by a cabal of the powerful while others wondered who could possibly be that competent.

The anxiety of another attack was permeating the national conscious, the immediate call for the removal our basic rights and privacy, and the debate of our call to war against a country who simply demanded evidence of extradition. The universal mourning of our fallen heroes and victims is nothing I will look back fondly on.

I guess I remember a different America on 9/12.