Everything Changed on 9/11

Yes, on September 11 everything changed, except it didn't.

Before 9/11, our government got involved in protecting us from all sorts of hazards, from the Budweiser frog to asbestos, from road rage to internet porn. And by watching the nightly news, you'd think the greatest threat to our personal safety was either shark attacks or mold. But then came our 9/11 "wake-up call," and everything........

Please. If everything changed, how come we're still fighting the old, stupid wars alongside the real war? Why are decent citizens still being jailed for smoking the wrong plant, easing the suffering of the terminally ill, or accepting cash for sex instead of the customary dinner and drinks. My last, best hope of ending the Drug War and other absurd laws quickly ended shortly after 9/11, when it became apparent that we were all politicians, and even in the light of new information--you know, the we're under attack thing--we still did not "waffle." We stayed loyal to stupidity and the stupid stuff that had always failed, because we're loyal and have honor and integrity. The Drug War would continue!

But for a couple of weeks there, I had hope. After all, a new day had dawned, and everyone was in agreement that we'd just gotten our priorities slapped into shape like 2 weeks at juvenile boot camp. Attorney General John Ashcroft said, "We cannot do everything we once did because lives now depend on us doing a few things very well."

Awesome. Well said. The guy really gets it.

Except, of course, he doesn't and didn't really mean it. cut to post 9/11. People keep saying, "we need to remember September 11." Yeah, but what we really need to remember is how we felt right after September 11, those heady few weeks when we couldn't believe how petty we'd been in the past, or how perfectly Seinfeld had captured the zeitgeist of the 90s---because it turned out everything back then really was about nothing! Impeachment was nothing! Elian Gonzales was nothing! Gays in the military, smoking in movies, childproofing Las Vegas---it was all nothing! We all came to our senses for five minutes and realized how nothing it all was and how much a new set of priorities was in order.

And then we forgot again.


/endrant