The networks' coverage of the 9/11 anniversary this morning was exactly what you'd expect: ABC went with the usual familiar footage accompanied by Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings, which I thought had long passed its sell-by date as official mournful music for sad events. Over on NBC, Matt Lauer was the first (regrettably, not the last) person I heard today utter those contemptable words: It was the day America "lost its innocence."
Innocence?
A nation whose very birth carried with it the attempted genocide of a continent's native peoples? A country whose economy was supported in the first century of its existence by slavery? Is that innocent? Or more recently, Vietnam, Chile, El Salvador? Nixon being forced from office? What were these things, mere blow jobs or finger bangs? Does America get to call itself a technical virgin despite the evidence of its own behavior?
Are we really that fucking naive? The United States is just like any white imperialist nation that has built its fortunes on the backs of those with darker skin. Sooner or later, the oppressed really do rebel. We have allowed our representatives to treat the whole world as something to exploit, and are shocked--shocked!--that the rest of the world resents it.
Stupid, jaded maybe, but innocent? This country has never been that.
