Never forget

And so another 9/11 is here.

I realized that this is the first September 11th on which it has, for me, been more than half a lifetime since the 9/11. That's a pretty weird thing to think about, and pretty hard to believe. But yeah, it's been 19 years since that horrible day that shook me, 18 years old and early in my first semester of college, to the core.

So that's one reason that this September 11 is different to me from those of past years.

I think there's something else, though, that makes this one really stand out, and take on a whole new meaning.

I still remember the feelings I had in the aftermath of those horrific terrorist attacks. To me at the time, it was the worst thing that had ever happened in my life. I felt so in a pit of despair that I legitimately wondered if I would ever truly feel happy again.

I was very young and naive. I had no idea of the ups and downs that life could bring.

9/11 was not the worst thing that has ever happened.

I don't want to be dismissive, though. It was a truly terrible thing.

As I reflect back on that day now, I think it's fitting that the anniversary this year comes in the same week that we received definitive audio proof that Donald Trump, in early February, was fully aware of the fact that COVID-19 was a terrible threat, and far more dangerous than the flu, and that all the statements he made to the contrary from that point on were not borne of mere ignorance but were brazen lies, and that it is therefore undeniable that he has the blood of tens if not hundreds of thousands of Americans on his hands.

Never forget 9/11. It's a refrain that has been hammered into us over and over.

Not that anyone who lived through that day could forget it.

But of course, "never forget" doesn't just mean that we should remember what happened. It means that there are lessons we should have learned from the events and those lessons should shape our lives and the actions we take both as individuals and as a country, into perpetuity.

Sadly, the people who are most apt to say "never forget" tend to be the people who took all the wrong lessons from those tragic events. Who used them as excuses for promoting xenophobia and endless war.

This has been clear for a long time. But now, the events of this year have fully revealed the utter hypocrisy and sheer moral depravity of the most vocal members of the "never forget 9/11" crowd.

The official death toll of the victims of the 9/11 attacks is 2977.

Each one of those deaths was a tragedy.

We changed so many things about our country in response to those attacks. Many of those changes were for the worse. All were promoted with the idea that we should do whatever it takes to stop something like that from happening again. Because "never forget."

For the last five-plus months, on average every two to three days a 9/11's worth of Americans has died from COVID-19. This didn't have to happen. Most of those deaths were preventable. If the federal government had taken decisive action at the start of the pandemic, and had committed our country's vast resources toward the challenge of containing the virus, and if our so-called leader had not lied and minimized the threat and encouraged his followers to not take it seriously, most of those people would still be alive.

The people who have been most loudly telling us over and over for the last 19 years to never forget those 2977 victims are the same people who are most likely to just shrug their shoulders at sixty 9/11s' worth (and still climbing, with the end nowhere in sight) of mostly preventable deaths.

What is happening in this country right now is kind of like if 9/11 was happening over, and over, and over, except the terrorists are the people in charge of the country, and we're currently in a campaign season where there's a real chance that those terrorists will be elected to another term.

Which is why on this 9/11 it's more important than on any before for us to say:

Never Forget.

Never forget this horrible tragedy that is unfolding all around us. And this time, let's collectively learn the right lessons from a horrible tragedy.

Donald Trump, by repeatedly lying to the American people to minimize the threat of COVID, and by deliberately slowing down testing efforts that could have helped contain the virus, and by doing numerous other things both before and during the pandemic that sabotaged our ability to effectively respond, is guilty of crimes against humanity. And we should never forget that. But we should also never forget that he's not the only guilty party.

Donald Trump is also the most corrupt and most criminal president in our nation's history. He does things pretty much every day that would fully warrant removal from office under the Constitution's impeachment clause. Early this year, before COVID became widespread in the U.S. but after the threat was already becoming apparent (on January 27, which was during the impeachment trial, USA Today published an op-ed by Joe Biden under the prophetic heading Trump is worst possible leader to deal with coronavirus outbreak), 53 Republican senators had the chance to do their constitutional duty and vote to remove Trump from office for his high crimes and misdemeanors. Only one, Mitt Romney, chose to put country over party.

They didn't know it at the time, but how many lives would have been saved if nineteen of Romney's Republican colleagues had joined him and the Democratic and independent senators and Trump had been removed?

(I'm not saying Mike Pence would have been the ideal president to lead the fight against COVID, but I doubt he'd have gone to nearly the levels Trump has in actively sabotaging our country's response.)

Trump has the blood of countless Americans on his hands. Trump is guilty of numerous acts of criminality and corruption and should have been removed from office many times over. Trump is also blatantly racist and blatantly misogynistic and a serial sex offender.

The Republican Party has stood nearly in lockstep behind him.

And the most distressing and depressing thing, the thing I never could possibly have imagined happening to this country when I think back to the events of 9/11/2001, is that about 40% of Americans are totally okay with this. Totally fine with all the damage Trump has done. Totally fine with their leader's failures and lies directly leading to the deaths of thousands upon thousands of their fellow citizens.

(We should also never forget that the toll of our country's failure on COVID is so much more than those hundreds of thousands of deaths. It's also in the perhaps equally large if not larger number of people left with long-term debilitating effects from the virus. It's also in all the people facing economic ruin thanks to Republicans' refusal to fund adequate relief packages. It's also in so many experiences that are normally parts of the fabric of our lives, precious time with our loved ones, celebrations and mourning, that we've had to sacrifice and will have to continue sacrificing as we continue to not contain the pandemic. We should never forget any of this.)

It's just bewildering that Trump's approval rating has only slightly budged through all of this horror. I never could have imagined it before I saw it actually all unfold before my eyes. I can only conclude that a dedicated right wing propaganda campaign that has been carried out over the course of the last few decades has twisted so many people's minds to the point where they have lost much of their ability to discern fact from fiction or right from wrong.

And so it's imperative that we never forget. Never forget Trump's crimes. But also never forget the crimes of his enablers in the Republican Party. And never forget the perhaps equally as heinous crimes of their enablers in the right wing media.

I know a lot of people who have voted Republican in the past and are now desperate to get Trump out of office. I know a lot of moderates and even liberals who are just desperate to get back to some sense of normalcy.

If Trump is gone next year and we collectively let out a big sigh of relief and then decide life is back to normal? If those never-Trump Republicans go back to voting Republican once Trump is off the ballot? If all those people who have become newly politically active decide their activism is no longer necessary?

Then we'll be just as doomed in the long run as we would be with a second Trump term.

The Republican Party and their right wing media allies are a far bigger threat to the people of this country than al Qaeda could ever have dreamed of being. Sixty 9/11s' worth and counting of COVID deaths make that clear. That threat isn't going to go away if Trump loses.

No decent, patriotic American should ever support the Republican Party again, at least until that party has completely remade itself into something totally different from the extremist, authoritarian  movement it has become. That might happen some day. It definitely won't happen in two or four or even eight years. And we must be constantly vigilant against the threat that propaganda campaigns pose to our democracy. Too many of our friends and loved ones have already been lost to those propaganda campaigns, but there are so many impressionable young minds out there who could still be swayed in either direction.

Never forget 9/11.

Never forget how the meaning of 9/11 was twisted to help reshape our country for the worse.

Never forget 2020.

Most importantly, never forget what allowed the events of 2020 to happen, and always fight to protect our society from going down this path again.