A Few Thoughts

I emailed my Mom this Friedman article that Jeff posted about recently. We got talking about the whole shebang - Iraq, the Mideast, greenery, oil, etc. - and she made an interesting point about how we as a nation, in the immediate wake of 9/11, "would have done anything," such as sustaining a big gas tax or some combination of expansive, energy-saving initiatives intended to reduce our dependency on oil. The more I think about this - and I've thought about this very subject quite a bit over the last year or so - the more I think that the U.S. lost a golden opportunity in the aftermath of 9/11. There are very few events around which we as a nation can rally as one: Pearl Harbors and 9/11s are the exceptions to the norm. Only events such as these, that affect the national consciousness (inasmuch as such a thing exists) on an emotional level, can galvanize an otherwise polarized population to mass, world-changing action.

In the few months after 9/11 there was that smoldering anger, that sense that I felt from everyone that "we" were attacked, that "we" must fight back. I think this sentiment was a big reason why our foray into Afghanistan met with little resistance; if we had coupled our foreign policy with strong domestic action, we might have well been on a better path than the one upon which we struggle at present. I'm not blaming anyone per se - it's not until now that I appreciate to some degree the various factors involved in the situation. However, I'm also not involved in making U.S. policy decisions.

So we messed up, I think. And now we are mired in muck of epic proportions, spending the majority of our time and effort bandying about party ideology rather than making the changes necessary to begin solving this monumental threat to our personal safety and the economic and environmental well-being of future generations.

Anyway. It's a gigantic shackle.