I am an American. I’ve always thought of it as a necessary evil but not something to really celebrate. It’s not a terrible thing, and there are definite pros and cons to the American system of government – a fair amount of individual liberty, especially outside of the cities, good gun rights and free speech but not so good when it comes to affordable health care, college education or helping those live in poverty.

While I was sure the events of September 11th were sad to those who had loved ones who died in the attacks, I saw them primarily as a way for greedy power brokers and often very well compensated government workers to expand their often abusive powers over the people. I saw September 11th a way to extract more wealth out of the poorest of Americans, put down and punish dissent, infringe on our gun rights, even if the right to keep and bear arms or speak your mind had nothing to do with September 11th.

It’s not like I ever had warm and fuzzy feelings about many of the people who died on September 11th. New York City of the 1990s exuded the attitude of greed is good, and while many of the people who died on September 11th may have been ordinary folk, many others were extremely wealthy while so many in Upstate NY toiled in the mud and muck literally. New York City had recently closed their landfill to ship trash Upstate and ended their recycling program, while Upstaters harvested a lot of their own food without packaging, had burn barrels and didn’t need the landfill like downstate. Then there was all the flash, marketing and unreality of urban life with its piles of trash every where.

Looking back, 20 years later maybe my analysis of New York City and the September 11th attacks wasn’t quite fair. Politicians did exploit the event for their own advancement and to consolidate power in the hands of government workers but eventually there was a lot of push back and processes were streamlined and worse of government abuses were reined. It had to be tragic to those affected by the attacks, even if they weren’t good people.

It’s hard to argue that the violence or destruction of September 11th was justified. It wasn’t. There are lawful ways to protest, be heard, run and hold office in America, if that’s your thing. Or you can just choose to be a non participant, focus on your own life, your family and land. Government workers rarely go after people who don’t paint targets on themselves. Certainly it would have been a lot better for Osma Bin Laden, the Taliban and the people of Afghanistan had they chosen to focus on making their own country a better rather than attack, kill and damage our America.