🗽 911 -20 years Anniversary
2021.9.11. former President George W. Bush, Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Here’s just an excerpt of what he had to say.
｛ There’s little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit. And it is our continuing duty to confront them. ｝
【Children of the same foul spirit 】
He’s talking about the January 6 insurrectionists, even though he didn’t name it, and what happened on 9/11.
He is drawing a direct line. And, certainly, Flight 93 was thought to be aimed at the nation’s Capitol. And January 6 truly did attack the Capitol Building.
A lot has happened in those 20 years. It has been an incredibly difficult 20 years for this country, with a recession and wars and now this pandemic, but the words from the former president also indicate just how much things have changed, that what he is saying was sort of a mainline idea, or at least an ideal, probably not realized, 20 years ago.
But now it’s almost controversial, at least in some parts of his own party.
His position about domestic terrorism vs. terrorism abroad is also reflected among many Americans.
In the NPR/“PBS NewsHour” poll, more Americans said they were worried about extremism in the United States than from abroad. And then there was an AP poll also out in August, same thing, where a larger percentage of Americans said, I’m much more worried about what’s going on here than being attacked by extremists from overseas.
It is this moment we had in 9/11, this moment we thought was going to be unity, and, instead, we have seen all these big — other big events lead us to more division and polarization.
