LJWorld.com

Very little reality has been cast on Sept. 11, 2001, outside of the manipulated pro-administration mantra that I've tolerated for five years. Here's my take.

This country acted like a victim on 9/11. Those 3,700 people who died did nothing directly to the hijackers who attacked the twin towers.

They just worked in a building that was a sign of capitalistic greed and oppression.

Similarly, the minorities in this country who were oppressed by capitalism by virtue of their slave labor, their lands being taken and their people being overlooked politically and underpaid, were subjugated by capitalists who wished for their wealth and their silence. No one hears much about the racial massacres of the Munsee People at Gnadenhutten, the Cheyenne People at Sand Creek, the Lakota at Wounded Knee or the African-Americans in Tulsa in 1921.

All of these atrocities and many others were committed by Euro-Americans in the name of subjugation for exploitational purposes. This country has blood on its hands on its own soil. Soil that it refuses to compensate the victims for to this day. Double standards and naivety are no excuse.

This country is not innocent. In both examples, the innocent died for the actions of the corrupt.

I remember going to my sociology class on Sept. 12, 2001, at Johnson County Community College.

The whole smallpox and anthrax scare was on. My professor had the brilliant idea of having students act like Cabinet members to determine which segments of the population would get smallpox vaccines and which ones wouldn't. Being a Choctaw descendant and knowing what was used by colonists as a biological weapon in the French and Indian War, I gave her an incredulous look. She caught on and reworked the classroom hypothesis.

This just goes to show the naivety of this country and the short-sightedness of this administration. They expected a loyal wall of silence in spite of their shortcomings pre- and post-9/11. If people vote someone into office in a democracy, they have a right to question that office holder by virtue of participating in the political system. No one should have immunity from questioning unless they have something to hide. No one should try to silence opposition unless they have something to hide.

I've seen both since 9/11, and it disgusts me. I've known young people who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. What were they fighting for and when will it be done? Will the absurd amounts of governmental waste in Iraq as referred to by the GAO ever stop? Will any of that money go to hurricane victims or the plaintiffs in the Cobell v. Norton case? Will I ever have my First and Fourth Amendment rights respected again? What I've said here is not "un-American." It's pro-responsibility, pro-civility and pro-educational. Living in a post-9/11 world has made me angry at the unaccountable people who seek scripted and controlled comments on their inept actions. I hope 2008 changes this.