“Our grief is not a cry for war,” messaged a grouping of artists drawn together by the events of September 11th, 2001. Once again, it’s time for those who share this same sensibility — all of us who want a better world — to cry out in protest: All this has not been done in our names! We rededicate ourselves to resist the machinery of war and repression and rally others to do everything possible to stop it. The U.S. must end these wars now!
Millions of teenagers in this country have now suffered 15 years of aggressive solicitation for indentured service to American triumphalism. “A child born on September 11, 2001, is now only a couple of years away from being able to sign on as a pilot in the air wars that began just after her birth,” notes Tom Engelhardt. “There are reasonable odds that her child, born several years from now, might be entering junior high school when those conflicts officially become America’s Thirty Years’ War.”
This Sunday, rebuke displays of allegiance to an illegitimate system appended to 9/11 memorials. All life is sacred, and American lives are not more valuable than others.