What follows will likely be an unpopular opinion, written from the viewpoint of a straight white male veteran about a day 18 years ago that was a horrific attack on America. One of the worst days in American history, it was also a day that brought out the best of Americans; we saw heroism that day that was unparalleled. But in retrospect, and as time has gone by, it has brought out the worst in America, and in Americans. I remember the horror of that day; I also know it is the day the America I knew growing up died.
It is the day that we started the forever war, against an enemy that constantly changes, and one that cannot be defeated with violence, because our violence toward it is what it uses as a recruiting tool.
It is the day that American racism began to crawl out from under the rock it had been peeking out from under. (I am not saying racism did not exist, or that racist incidents were not happening—it most certainly existed, and racist incidents were happening—but it was not as out in the open as it is today, and it most certainly was not openly encouraged by an American president.) After that day, if you had brown skin, spoke with an accent, dressed differently, or were different in any way from the majority, you became the enemy. It is the day that it became possible for someone like Donald Trump to be elected president.
Trump’s cries for a wall are not born of any real crisis. They are born out of fear of “others” who are different. The people crossing the southern border only want the same thing that our own immigrant families wanted—a better life. He has called them gang members, rapists, thugs, and “bad hombres.” Even people trying to escape the devastation of Hurricane Dorian are not exempt from his racism as he says, “Everybody needs totally proper documentation. Because, look, the Bahamas had some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas that weren’t supposed to be there. I don’t want to allow people that weren’t supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States — including some very bad people and some very bad gang members.”
The numbers of hate crimes against Muslims have increased. At Netroots Nation in 2011 in Minneapolis, I witnessed an act of blatant act of racism against a young woman who was a guest of our nation carried out by a man I know to have been a right-wing blogger. Why did this man go after this young woman? Because she chose to wear a hijab. Then there are the unfounded fears of Sharia law: Read any news story about a crime committed in a majority-Muslim country, and read the comments. You will find fear of something that is not happening in the United States, and cries of barbarism about Islam. And at the same time, these very same people would be okay with the very same laws and punishments if they were done in the name of Christianity.
The war on terror continues, although I am not sure how you fight a war against terror. We are still in the Middle East fighting a never-ending war, and we are now on our second generation of young men and women being sent into harm’s way—and for what? Are we really any safer? We still have to go through the security theater of having our belongings searched prior to getting on an airplane, that is, unless you pay $85 for TSA Pre-Check. More people die in the country every year from gun violence than have died in terrorist attacks in the United States. We do nothing to prevent gun violence—but we have to take our shoes off to get on a plane.
All of this fear and hatred have led us directly to Donald Trump. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are at the beginning of a direct line to him and his racist, xenophobic policies. Fear of anyone different. Fear of change. Fear of other cultures. As a nation, we used to project strength. We were the shining beacon on a hill to the rest of the world. Today, we live in fear, and we fight unending wars to feel safe. But we are really no safer today than we were on Sept. 10, 2001.
America changed that day—and not for the better. It was the day the America I grew up in died.