Perspective, Perspective, Perspective

This thoughtful NYT Op-Ed by history professor Joseph J. Ellis successfully helps us put the tragic events of September 11th into historical perspective.

What Patrick Henry once called "the lamp of experience" needs to be brought into the shadowy space in which we have all been living since Sept. 11. My tentative conclusion is that the light it sheds exposes the ghosts and goblins of our traumatized imaginations. It is completely understandable that those who lost loved ones on that date will carry emotional scars for the remainder of their lives. But it defies reason and experience to make Sept. 11 the defining influence on our foreign and domestic policy. History suggests that we have faced greater challenges and triumphed, and that overreaction is a greater danger than complacency. [Emphasis Added]

The historical perspective offered by Ellis is important, not only because it exposes the shrill Bush administration for their overreaction to the events of September 11th, but because Ellis does so without being shrill himself. He allows the president to be seen in the distinguished company of John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

Personally I believe the reaction to September 11th by the Bushes has more to do with politics and greed, than it does national security. And this belief is coming from a person who lives in downtown Manhattan, who saw the first plane flying ominously low in the sky, who watched as the throngs of ashen people streamed uptown as I returned downtown after an abbreviated morning at work, who watched from his living room window as the smoke drifted from the site for days, and who had to smell the acerbic stench of the day for weeks afterwards.

I live in Osama's bulls-eye and I have enough perspective to know that, while September 11th was a horrible day, the overreaction and disgusting politicalization of that day just adds insult to injury. George Bush, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney should be embarrassed by their actions.

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