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Technorati9/11 Fatigue
Dear Mr. President,
I saw a clip of your news conference the other night and I am concerned about you. Your hairline is receding. Your face is wan and getting more wrinkled. You couldn't stop giggling when you talked about World War III.
Is this job getting to you? Are you not sleeping at night? I think you may have 9/11 Fatigue.
9/11 Fatigue creeps up on you when you least expect it and it occupies every minute of your day. You start to see boogey men around each corner and tense yourself even when you're trying to relax. You lie awake at night looking for ways to protect yourself from those who would harm you because, of course, you never know whom to trust. Worse yet, you spend endless hours trying to persuade others to join you in fighting an ever-elusive enemy. It's almost as bad as post-traumatic stress syndrome that soldiers must contend with after serving in Iraq for their second, third, fourth and even fifth tours of duty.
I'm really worried about you, sir, because as the only visible leader left in government, if you fall, we all fall with you. So you must take care of yourself and here's my best advice: spend more time out in Nature. I'm teaching my first-year college students to do this in a class called "Seeing the World at Three Miles an Hour." It focuses on helping the students to slow down enough to notice nature, which I contend will allow them to enjoy life and get in touch with their deepest selves. Recently they went on a 75-minute walk in the woods where they had no cell phones, no computers, no ipods, no other people around to distract them. They experienced solitude.
You'd be amazed at how differently they looked after spending this short time in nature. One young woman couldn't stop dancing she was so exuberant about her contact with the trees, their falling leaves, the crunching of her feet on the trail. Another student meditated on an anthill. Instead of crushing this little cone of sand as she usually does, she gingerly walked around it and felt compassion for the creatures scurrying in and around their home. Yet another student spent her time thinking about her father who had died five years before. He was a nature lover and had passed on that passion to her.
I'm so excited about what happened to my class. Their fatigue from the past four weeks of school just seemed to lift right off their faces. And so, sir, since your job seems to be wearing on you after nearly seven years, get some rest. Take a walk in the woods. (And for God's sakes don't ride in your pick-up truck or cut brush.) Experience the wonders of nature. Listen to the trees, talk to them and ask them for advice. (Stay away from the pines, however, they tend to pass along the secrets they hear). Take off your shoes and walk in the grass. Breathe in the autumn air and let it waft through your hair. Take a sketchpad and draw a log, a mushroom or a rock. Forget about the terrorists for a little while.
I strongly urge you to do this nature walk on your own. Even though the Secret Service has to watch over you, order them to stay out of sight so that you can just be alone with yourself for a change and not have to remember that you are the president.
If you did these things every day for an hour I think you would see the world much more differently, just as Eleanor Roosevelt did on her visits to Rock Creek Park near D.C. She found solace by simply staring at a sculpture there as she endured the difficult days of a Depression AND a war. People hated her, too, and blamed her for things that went wrong-just as they do you with this Iraq thing. And after she left the White House she continued to be a great woman just as you aspire to be a great man.
As you know, 9/11 changed everything and no president has ever had to deal with such challenges before. Lincoln had the civil war; Wilson had WWI; and FDR had WWII, but these were minor compared to what you must do to overcome those bastard terrorists. It must be exhausting work! But you must take care of yourself because, well, after all, you're the president, Mr. President.
Better yet, think about resigning. Then you could spare your health-and the nation's. As the decider of the free world, you just don't seem to have that fast ball anymore to tackle such major league problems as global warming, massive migration, overpopulation, disease, hunger, oppression and social injustice. You've carried the ball this far in this difficult post-9/11 era and I thank you but I must say, things seem to have gotten worse in the world.
Besides, you'll need your strength for the post-presidency, which is bound to last 20 to 30 years. You're undoubtedly a long-ball hitter like your parents!
Of course, you'll want to set the story straight about your legacy. Darn media won't get it right without your direction. Or you might consider jumping out of plane like your father did in his post-presidency just to prove that he wasn't a wimp. In that way you could show the world that you're still relevant. That's far more heroic than using veto power over those pathetic Democrats. You could also wear that cute little jump suit again. Gosh you looked so good back then when the mission in Iraq had been accomplished. Those were the days!
Please, sir. Give it a rest, sir. You'll be doing yourself-and all of us-a big favor.
Olga Bonfiglio is a professor at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and author of Heroes of a Different Stripe: How One Town Responded to the War in Iraq. She has written for several national magazines on the subjects of social justice and religion. Her website is www.OlgaBonfiglio.com. Contact her at olgabonfiglio@yahoo.com.
48 Comments so far
Show AllDear Olga,
I too am suffering from 9/11 Fatigue. Our government and intelligence agencies made a blunder and failed to prevent a horrible attack in our country. But instead of owning up to it, apologizing, and moving on, they have used the attack to justify everything from an illegal war of aggression to the suspension of habeas corpus. Everyday there is a new assault on the Constitution and our freedoms as American citizens. And the politicians say they can do this because "It's a different world now." So they tell me.
I notice the politicians rarely mention the 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks anymore. I guess that is because 3,000 just doesn't seem like that much anymore. More than that many American soldiers have now died in Iraq. At least 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died. Millions more people all over the world die each year of disease (some preventable) and malnutrition. Almost 1,000,000 people die EACH YEAR from malaria--the world's number one killer. For us to focus our entire foreign and domestic policy on 9/11 is starting to look self-absorbed and whiny to the rest of the world. Maybe because it is.
Americans never used to be fearful people. We lived by the adage "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." We faced our problems with courage and solved them. Now we appear to be a bunch of cowards willing to sell our souls so Big Daddy government will protect us from the Islamic boogeyman. To those Americans I say, our country will never be destroyed by others. It will be destroyed little by little from within as we give up our liberties for a little more perceived security.
Here's an idea for stopping the terrorists: how about we stop f***ing around with other people's governments/natural resources. This war thing isn't working out, so maybe we could at least give it a try.
Olga Bonfiglio,
If you are suggesting that we too should be suffering from a 9/11 fatigue and start giving up our quest for an honest investigation into what really happened, then you are wrong. Thruth seekers will never suffer from fatigue. Their energy is inexhaustible. How do you expect closing our eyes on the most horrific crime of the century and let criminals like BushCo and Giuliani get away with the massmurder they perpetrated on American citizens just for their selfish PNAC agenda in violation of human dignity ? No way. There will be no fatigue on our part. Be assured.
He has outdone his father in the number of Iraqis slaughtered and the number of returning body bags. In that same competitive tradition, he should also jump out of an airplane and for greater impact - do it without a parachute!
http://www.spingola.com/my_articles.htm
Dear Dubya, If the great outdoors is not to your liking, hey,the World Series is upon us. And it's football season. Why not sit down with a big bowl of pretzels and enjoy the games. Share some with the Dick. Bon Appetite!
I have noticed Bush's puffy face and eyes. Must be the old alcohol trip he's taking up at night.
9/11 was planned and orchestrated by elements tied to the Bush regime, so the assertion that they are having 9/11 fatigue is absurd! Some of us leftists are eager to attack the after-effects of the attacks (the abridgement of civil liberties, a neverending war against the evil Other, obscene profits for the military industrial complex, creation of the fascistic "Homeland Security" department, etc.), yet are too stubborn to take the time to slow down and look at the veracity of the actual attacks themselves.
The planners of 9/11 had hoped that most of us wouldn't question what happened, that we would simply adjust to the world that they wanted to create for us; this has happened for the most part, although the planners of 9/11 underestimated the people. 9/11 was definitely an inside job, and six years after the fact, many of us can see that it was a BOTCHED inside job.
The 9/11 Commission was compromised from the very beginning. Bush fought hard against even investigating the greatest crime in American history (why?), but when he finally agreed, he and Cheney wouldn't testify under oath, they testified TOGETHER, in private with no transcripts (?). They then appointed Bush insider Philip Zelikow to lead the Commission, a man with close ties to the Bush regime and who had written about events like 9/11 long before it was actually tried out on us.
This whole thing was planned. Check out this video on the executive director of the 9/11 Commission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuoQZkBFj9A
Ah yes.. the simple things that have ALWAYS made the largest impact. In Thom Hartman's book 'The Prophets Way', Herr Muller said to Thom that the most powerful things on earth were small acts of kindness unknown by the many.
Dear Olga.. President Bush may never see your post here but, it's presence already has started a sequence of events. Thank you
Anyone who giggles while talking about World War III needs to be in a mental institution. I didn't see Bush's speech, but if it's true he giggled, he needs to be removed from office and placed in a straight jacket.
I guess war, to the right-wing war profiteers, is entertainment and a chance to become multi-billionaires.
I agree, Vive Olga. Where was she when I was in school?? In retirement Bush will be gobbled up by the Carlyle Group and whatever think tank needs a token name to boost its agenda. and, of course he could always sell camp fire wood from the brush he cuts.. Burning Bush Brush...
You people amaze me--you take every opportunity to rant. If you had any real culture, you would have responded to a tongue-in-cheek essay with some cheek-clucking of your own. Lighten up! Remember, Americans, whether of right or left, red or blue, are the most evil people on earth, and so you will never lack for just objects of hatred and derision! And besides, if you're lucky enough not to smoke, think of how much fun you'll have in your superadvanced nonage, when your children have abandoned you in rest homes, when your bodies will have been deteriorating from all manner of attacks upon your overstrained nervous system, but you'll be lucid enough to continue your self-righteous moralizing! Down with Bush, say I! Down with the lot of you, too! Down with America! Vive Olga Goodson!
Poor Olga Bonfiglio:
Just completely missing the point and misjudging the functioning of a criminals mind...
GWB and others of his ilk are clinically diagnosable psychopaths, that operate and are motivated by entirely different set of pathological values and dysfunctional core beliefs than ordinary folk's values and core beliefs....
9/11, 9/11, 9/11...Everything changed on 9/11!
The mysterious Reichstag fire in 1933, the burning of the Reichstag...The Treaty of Versaille in 1918, the Treaty of Versaille in 1918...a wheelbarrel full of worthless Deutchmarks to buy a loaf of bread in 1923...etc. Denounce all who disagree as unpatriotic. Do as I say and don't question me!
The Professor's field trip with her class is truly admirable,as she described it.
Oh Mother Nature, we humans have burdened you with our excesses and you still put up with us. That is the positive female principal in the Universe. Too bad Georgie boy, the 'decider' isn't masculine enough to face the American people. He loaths you, Mother, but Father Time has come to your defense and has made his mark on the 'heir' of the fourth reich.
Thank you Olga Bonfiglio for the article.
Bu$h the inferior is barking mad. This is the primary reason he is president. The elite needed the kind of dummy they could program to spit out nonsense on cue and be stupid enough to actually go down in history as the worst president.
He will spend the rest of his life trying to justify his actions and spin himself into the worlds hero.
You guys are so blind, that's not Bush laughing. Sometimes Cheney, while he has his hand up Bush's ass and while manipulating the levers of the talking Dummy, can't control his glee over his success as a fascist ventriloquist. It's Cheney laughing through his teeth.
W, sleeping peacefully? You know your brother and cousin with a W for a last name, yes the same W as in Walker, were running the security co at WTC. They also ran security where planes took off from in DC.
I am sure it is just a coincidence.
WTC power shut off for 72 hours the weekend before 911? Ignore that pathetic man behind the curtains. I am sure Papa IS the real Wizard of OZ.
Who were the real terrorists that killed innocent Americans to create a reason for an AGENDA? Sleep tight. Your 72 Virginians await you in the afterlife.
Just my humble opinion after looking back on 911, WTC. and the Pentagon without emotion but with eyes open.
Sleep tight and smell a rose.
Any conversation about 9/11 would be entirely remiss without this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa7PN-8T2VY
well, dear fellow commenters and prisoners of these ugly times, while your anger and literal-ness is understood, this particular article was meant to be a form of satire known as understatement - it reminds us of cs lewis' advice that mockery is the only weapon that works against evil.
brava!
Indeed. Prosecute the elites for 9/11. The most hideous crime is the staging of the whole thing, a mastery of sheer evil, the mass murder of their own citizens--it doesn't get any sicker than that. Cheney was head of Norad on 9/11. Mineta's testimony alone is damning... Cheney, the ghoulish nature of these architects of war! Rummy... stare at his picture closely, see the cold-blooded lizard in him. Look up Northwoods Project: know your historical record of the US government's prior plans to kill its own citizens to justify war in a false flag operations. Then read the big lie of McNamara denying, under oath, that there was any plan incriminating that pack of murderers in the Gulf of Tonkin incident. "Remember the Maine" and review the strange patterns that precede our wars. 9/11 is another. We want to know all about Able Danger. Why were all the records destroyed? Tell us the precise relationship between the FBI and the patsies. How did the patsies get their training at airports associated with Iran Contra? There's so much to learn about, so much more to learn of the desperate sickness of the architects of war; they shall instruct us on the depravity that arises from bureaucracy, from the technopoly of torture.
Sadly, the emergent police state is more likely our fate, under the helm of Shillary. But yes, by all means, we should be calling for an international inquiry into the events of 9/11. The Hague knows who butters their bread, hence it is up to the MSM'd populace to wake up and smell the sulfur. Only the proles cans save us...
911 fatigue? Not me no way I want to see the file re-investigated.
Where are the flight recorders?
Two towers hit three towers fall down, I say bullshit.
When buildings burn down they don't blow up.
The seismograph readings recorded the event as well.
This needs to be re-opened.
Putting Bush and his cronies behind bars is the ONLY way US citizens will ever regain their dignity. The crimes that have been committed are so horrible that even the good people on this forum are not taking to heart what has been done not only to the nation, but to every last US citizen. We have all become war criminals; we have failed to stop war crimes of the first order. George Bush & Co. have made monsters of us all.
One scenario for the possible incarceration of our prominent war criminals: China repossesses this country as we default on the mortgage; we find that most of the country and many companies have been 'Enronized.' Our good citizens could take up work stations in a newly occupied land, one where everyone is hungry and eager for 16-hour-a-day manual labor jobs that Chinese citizens now enjoy. The BushCo team may become subjects of the 'New Nuremberg' trials--a world spectacle of the purification of the truly disposable elites. Of course, we could expect someone like Cheney to shot himself in his bunker. Some would say that ashes were all that remained, while others would speculate that he had escaped. And so on.
Here's a 'working title' for the scenario:
Whatever happened to Rudolf Hess?
In 9/11 related things that make you go hmmmm.... a plane just hit an apartment building in Richmond, BC, Canada. Building is still standing. So far, no deaths. No fire.
UN-common-dreams: Think about the hangover that's due from these 'parties'...
Funny how we can misread things sometimes.
As I perused Olga's article I read the following:
"...Better yet, think about resigning. Then you could spare your health-and the nation's. As the DECIEVER of the free world..."
~ Upon refelection, I think I prefer my version to hers.
As to talk of the Repulsive Party and the Dummycrat Party, well, -I've been to some lousy parties in my time, but I reckon those two were the worst!
:-p
It never ceases to amaze me that people look at the carnage left and perpetrated to be, and still think that 9/11 "just was matter of happenstance timing".
Bull!
How deep in the sand do people need to insert their heads not to hear: "Bush and the Neocon arranged for the attack on America!"
Yoohoo! Hellooooo?
Willybill: The line forms on the left...
Mordechai..I doubt bush will make it to 106...too much stress behind bars.
But, if he does live a long life, please allow me to live just a bit longer than monkey boy so I can piss on his grave. Is that asking too much?
Please, sir. Give it a rest, sir. You'll be doing yourself-and all of us-a big favor.
Marvin K. Mooney, will you please go now....
Willo: I'm betting what we are seeing is the effects of all the drinking and drugs he did in his youth, plus the suspected trans-ishemic (sp?)stroke he -may- have had. (This was a theory that was floated right after the famous 'box-under-the-shirt' debates with John Kerry).
As for those few still in denial about the events of 9/11, how would you feel if you had to admit to yourself that your government MURDERED 3000 of your fellow citizens to provide the pretext for an illegal war?
He's definitely showing some signs of deterieration. He never had much brains to begin with. What he has is audacity and lack of a conscience. If he himself wasn't part of the 9/11 event itself he is at least an accessory after the fact. And he and his handlers have used it to springboard themselves to all the other crimes like invading innocent nations and such.
Why anyone would still denie his complicity in the 9/11 event in light of all the other lies and treachery is perplexing and nonsenseical.
You think bush looks tired and wrinkled now? Wait until THE TRUTH OF 9/11 is revealed. Those years behind bars are really going to put the years on for the chimp and Darth. It's coming. Someone on the inside is getting ready to drop a dime....oh, sorry, it's fifty cents now. C'mon..you know your conscience is getting the best of you....wouldn't you love a good nights sleep? Is it you, Amy? Silverstein? Some NY fireman? Some cop? Make peace with your maker. The truth will set you free.
W resign? Should we hope so? Because without Bush, you got Dick---
Seattlepatriot: No doubt Bush will retire (at some point) to a South American country with no extradition, to enjoy his remaining days making up for all the drinking, snorting coke, and sadistic sexual hi-jinks with local male prostitutes/reporters that have been denied him these recent years...
What has been taken by force must be regained by force - but not a mirror image of the violence - as Martin Luther King referred to it: "Soul Force"
with millions of people as are coming out all over the world.
Thanks for the chuckles, Prof. Bonfilgio. Not only was it tongue-in-cheek funny, it brought up the interesting topic of 'post-decider' for Dubya. What will he do after he leaves office (assuming he will)? Can you imagine him building homes for the poor like Jimmy Carter? Lecturing and writing on politics and foreign policy like (even) Nixon? Becoming an 'elder statesman'? Getting involved in the global warming issue, health care, education, etc., etc., etc.? What politician in his/her right mind would seek him out for advice on any subject, except possibly finishing the work of eviscerating the Constitution, eliminating all the traditional processes of government, establishing a dictatorship, emptying the treasury, and invading and occupying a totally defenseless country that did no more harm to the US than threatening to sell its oil using the Euro instead of the US dollar. I, for one, fervently hope that after a series of studied and erudite biographies justifiably label him "Worst President in History" he will simply go back to Texas and fall off the national radar.
And why is the author beating around the Bush when she should realize that it's not just about Bush but about the "conservative" ideology and a corrupt system that needs to be pounded ? 9/11 fatigue already set in before 2002 as it was. Besides, Bush will be outta here on 2009 with another president ready to move to the "right" of Bush regardless of the party. It's not as if the neocons are going to give up their wars for oil and water or for that matter that the neolibs are going to give up their "free" trade/market RIGGED "capitalism" selling out.
Egg sucking rat bastard mediocrities like George Wanker Bush don't get tired. An aggressively stupid person like him, snorting all those secret lines of blow, then conversing with God and the ghost of Winston Churchill, wiping his ass with newly printed $100 bills, consulting with his dog Barney on foreign policy, telling his secretary not to put through any calls from his mother, shmoozing his way to be the next Commissioner of Baseball, never wondering why he hasn't had a hard-on for decades . . . someone like that does not become fatigued. Like a monster in an old 1950's sci fi film, he just keeps coming on no matter what. He's either going to die in bed at the age of 106 "surrounded by his loving family", or grow a walrus moustache and be the American Joseph Stalin who delivers the coup de grace to what little is left of democracy and freedom in this nation. Did you ever think you'd live to see this happen?
9/11 is the beacon of hope for the sector of the ruling class the spawned the Bush family.
For all others, it is the beacon of fear, distrust and societal corruption.
However, another, earlier US-enabled 9/11 started the spread of hope to the ruling classes everywhere; this historical transformation occured with the overthrow of Allende's government. In its place, a "free=market" dictatorship was established.
This was the beginning of non-democratic revolutions that smashed or greatly weakened trade unions, increasingly insulated governments from the economic and political demands of lower-class citizens, expanded the militarization of societies, redistributed vast amounts of wealth to the already wealthy and those thugs who stole national assets under the rubric of privatization, and sent more and more of the world's manufacturing to the poorest, least democratic societies.
The 9/11 that actually sent the world spinning was 9/11/73 Chile.
No one ever grows fatigued with the happiest day of their lives. But the real problem with this cute essay is this: Bush isn't the problem. He's just the front man, the barker, the PR, the "product." He's simply too stupid to be anything other than someone's tool - what he's been his whole life.
Our problems go way beyond the little hollow moron liar, evidenced by the Dems continued effort to offer only fake "opposition" before handing over the rest of the keys to the castle. It's one team with an offense and a defense - not "two parties." We must remember that or none of OUR team's strategies have a chance of success.
Andersdl: Didn't Rudy put his Emergency Command Center in Building 7 of the World Trade Center? You know, the one that commited suicide? How much do you think he got paid for the insurance?
9-11 was the best thing to happen for the neocons...it gave them a license to steal and murder. That license appears to have no expiration date.
Rudy G. is basing his campaign on 9-11, hoping to extend the license as long as possible. The Capitol Steps 2007 Fourth of July program includes a sketch on Rudy with a modified version of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven for background music. The chorus goes: He's rely-y-ying on Ni-ine Eleven.
Fuck him.
Galen says it very eloquently: 9/11 does not fatigue Honorable Bush at all; it fuels him.
That day's dead bodies are his lifeblood. He feeds on them like a vampire. 9/11 was and is his great political and military opportunity. It is the New Pearl Harbor that he and his friemds at the Project for the New American Century all were hoping for.
The only thing Bush sees in nature is how fast can he rape the land for a profit for his corporate freinds.
Where you and I might see the beauty of a forest, he sees profit from pulp and paper. Where we see the majesty of a river, he sees a hydro-electric dam. Where we see a serene mountain range, he sees open pit mining for coal and minerals. An open grassland for us is a habitat for a diversity of animal life. Bush sees a ranch for 'canned' hunting where the animal waits, tethered to the ground, terrified of the approach of men with guns.
Bush is not fatigued by 9/11. He is enervated, even eroticly aroused. He enjoys suffering. Rejoices in needless death. Let us not forget that he put out lit cigarettes on the skin of his fraternity pledges during is colledge days. In the name of all that is decent, he GIGGLED at the idea of World War III in recent days. When he was at 'Ground Zero' in New York he was all but dancing on the graves of all those who perished on that day. 9/11 was the best thing he ever had happen in his miserable, disgusting, indulgent life.
Do you really think that Bush sees anything at "Three Miles an Hour."
While you are teaching first-year college students you are dealing with way more intelligence than you are when dealijg with BUSH . . . .
Unless what you have to say has $$$ in front and after what you say to Mr Bush you are wasting your time . . . . Oh Yes . . . . Be sure to have something about GOD speaking to you also other wise Bush will not know what you are talking about.
If Bush is fatigued it is not from 9/11. It's from all the Constitution shredding and war mongering he has been doing since 9/11. What he has done over the past 6 years would wear anyone out. All the death and destruction in Iraq and the domination of the Democratic Party and the stacking of the Supreme Court has tired out this old Texan. But as we'll see in 2008, George is replaceable and the empire will continue to stomp its IRON HEEL across the globe.
Hoa binh
The 9/11 attacks are still an important touchpoint in our national and international psychology and current events.
Many people are obviously concerned about another similar event ... which might be designed to accomplish various purposes.
Food for thought in the two articles ...
"Viewpoints on 9/11 attacks span continuum of concerns"
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=13487
- - -
"Questions about 9/11 attacks include wide range of factors"
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=13249
Whoever thinks President Bush is fatigued and about to "give it a rest" is misunderestimating him and the entire conservative movement (again.)
Daniel David: Whoever thinks President Bush is fatigued and about to "give it a rest" is misunderestimating him and the entire conservative movement (again.)
Right you are, and it bears repeating. I don't think we've seen anything compared to what these guys are fully capable of.