9/11

Bryan Thatcher published his photos of the 9/11 NYC Trade Center attacks for the first time. Bryan lives in NYC. He is the President of Fusebox which is the creator of Empressr. He’s a great guy I often run into at technology conferences and someone I always enjoy speaking with.

Bryan’s photos are powerful. I saw them initially in my Facebook stream. These images immediately grabbed my attention. These force us to remember this horrible event, which can be a good thing, I think. However, I wish we could encapsulate the terror the USA has illegitimately subjected other nations to in an equally simple and powerful set of images. On a day like today I wish Americans would also reflect on the endless war we’ve entered, the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, the United States persistent disregard of the Geneva Convention, torture, domestic surveillance, the suspension of Civil Rights and Habeas Corpus, the unprecedented expansion of executive privilege, a complete lack of federal accountability, and Hurricane Katrina. These are all things we Americans should be reflecting on today.

There is a call for a 9/11 General Strike.  I think this is a good first step. What does one do when they wake to find themselves part of the Empire? Obsequiousness  is consent. It makes us all just as guilty as those who stood by as New Orleneans drowned, farmers sold to the US Government are tortured and held indefinitely in Gitmo and other invisible prisons, another hundred thousand innocent Iraqis are starved and killed, and war profiteers with direct connections to the White House reap hundreds of billions in rewards for their manufactured war. We are Americans. This if our government and corporations. We must all individually speak out. We must share our outrage. We must participate in protests and acts of civil disobedience. Otherwise we are complicit. This isn’t a political issue. It’s a human and civil rights issue.