Thanks, but I'll pass

If Labor Day is one of my favorites days of the year, this is one of my least.

A moment of silence or remembrance for those who were killed or gave their lives in service to their country and fellow Americans on 9/11/01 is certainly a noble effort.  As for the rest...you can have it.

For newspapers and edutainment channels, it's become just another way to make money.  Frankly, after ten years there is neither anything new nor anything of genuine interest to add.  They should save their "what the day means to you"  stories for the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, MLK Day, or Labor Day.

In many respects, Bin Laden's efforts have succeeded. Thanks to republicans, Americans are more divided than ever since 9/11--and that division is downright rancorous.  Our moral compass has been shattered:  we let a President lie us into an unnecessary war that killed thousands of Americans and never held him to account; we turned a blind eye to torture and are a lesser nation for it.  We chewed up and spit out our precious freedoms, enacting civil rights killing measures like the Patriot Act and giving the Presidency untold power to spy on us.  Ten years ago, the tea party would  not have been considered mainstream--they would have been called what they are:  a lunatic fringe hell bent on the further destruction of America.

But Bin Laden's greatest success has been the financial ruin that is the American economy since 9/11.  Over a trillion dollars has been spent on two largely failed wars yet one quarter of our children now live in poverty.
Billions have been spent on Homeland Security and further increasing an already bloated Defense budget, yet our roads and schools are falling apart.  In fear, too many Americans helped to elect people who promised to protect them but whose main objective was to lower the standard of living for the many and imcrease it for the wealthy few.  Unemployment in America is over 9% and underemployment is over 16%, yet Sen. Kyl is threatening to quit the Catfood Commission II if there are any more cuts to the Defense Budget.  Want to guess the odds of one of the six Democrats on the Super Committee threatening to quit over cuts to the Social Safety Net?  Thanks to Citizens United, corporations can now effectively buy our elections--too many of us shrug our shoulders because, hey, we can still afford the cable and cell phone bills and never mind the shrinking middle class, the backbone of our country, and the fact that most of us are a medical crisis away from financial ruin.

Patriots Day?  No, thanks--I'll say a prayer for the innocents and heroes killed on 9/11/01 and spend the rest of my time working on the progressive values that make America greater and not so much on the lip service that has lessened our country over the past ten years.

Peace,
emaycee