Sept. 11 and 12 – Heroes Remembered and Exploited

The Missus refers to September 11 as “Republicans Day.” Not because only Republicans took casualties on that infamous morning, but because only Republicans have turned it into manna from heaven at the ballot box every other year since then. On one level, I deeply begrudge them that on matters of good taste, if nothing else. On the other hand, if the Dems had managed to successfully exploit it, I would have still condemned their tacky, disrespectful politicking, but would have been secretly grateful it hadn’t been the GOP that had managed to spin national catastrophe into electoral gold.

For instance, Sarah Palin emerged from the McCain campaign cone of silence yesterday – 9/11 – just long enough to speak at ceremonies where her son “Track” was being sent off to the Iraq meatgrinder then sit down with ABC’s Charlie Gibson to talk politics. Very artfully done, madame. Huzzah! Kudos to your handlers. It’s a shame you couldn’t answer any of the interviewer’s foreign policy questions coherently, or even demonstrate an understanding of what experts refer to as The Bush Doctrine (which you are expecting to pick up and expand upon once in office), but luckily for you, you weren’t drafted for your intellectual heft.

Otherwise, I thought she obfuscated pretty well for someone new to the national stage, but her segues from questions she couldn’t answer to stump-speech Greatest Hits need a little work. And Gibson never confronted her with any of her myriad gubernatorial scandals or the flat-out lies she and the campaign have been spreading around like loose cigarettes at an AA meeting for the last week. Somehow, Paul Krugman managed to eke out an entire column on the subject, but maybe Gibson was afraid Palin would unexpectedly wipe off her lipstick and complete her magical transmogrification from ‘hockey mom’ to bloodthirsty pit bull right there on the evening news and frighten the kiddies.

You know the kids I mean, the ones at home that she hasn’t packed off yet to go fight Bush’s born-again jihad in the Holy Land on the anniversary of 9/11 for the benefit of the television cameras.

And that’s your basic September 11 anniversary. Like The Missus pointed out, the Republicans own it. It was the biggest domestic national security catastrophe in American history, they were alerted about it ahead of time, it happened on their watch anyway and they’ve been winning elections with it for seven years now. (See my previous post on how Americans are stupid.)

I always get reflective on Sept. 11 because for me, it’s not just the anniversary of the new millenium’s first foreign attack on American soil and the right-wing’s continuing exploitation of same, but because it’s also the anniversary of the last day I shared the earth with Johnny Cash, who was called home to Glory on Sept. 12, 2003.

Two days of infamy. Two days my heart was shredded into a million tiny pieces. The only difference is, 9/11 is still as open a wound as the money pit at ground zero in New York thanks to the GOP’s weaponization of the anniversary, whereas every year I grow more sanguine about the passing of Cash. He had a good run, he sinned, got redeemed, fell in love and even enjoyed a late-career creative, critical and commercial renaissance. What more could a pop star want?

More importantly, he’d long ago made his peace with his God, and that’s something I still haven’t checked-off my To-Do List. He remains an inspiration in so many ways, and likely will until the day I shuffle off this mortal coil myself. I only hope I can do it with half the class and dignity of The Man In Black. I know for sure I’m gonna try to do it that way.

So this one’s for you, John. Rest easy, good and faithful friend. Save me a seat in the front row, center.