The Fruit: The Legacy of 911 The Discovery Channel recently aired a show debunking the 911- Inside Job myth. The producers wanted us to believe that no matter what they did or said, truthers (as 911 truth seekers are called) will never be convinced. It occurred to me that some people support an issue from a default position. To investigate further would cause them to say, “The official story can't be true” and then lead to the question, “So what did happen?” Saying, “so what did happen?” appears to imply that because no one can say absolutely how something happened means they are grasping at straws. It's the Casey Anthony case all over again. The jurors appeared to say, “Oh, we don't know why she died or how- therefore the epidemic of three-year-girls being found dead in garbage bags by their mothers who report them missing weeks after they've disappeared continues.” So let's end the fight over who did what on 911. Let's look at the fruit of 911. Take away the blame and let's look at the results. After 911 we were told to shop, go on living life as it was meant to be lived: in plenty of debt with no end in sight. It's the creed of “We are at war, go therefore and shop” brought to you by the Federal Reserve. And the most wonderful shopping mall of all was real estate. Buy a house, no money down, no income verification. Buy a house and get cash back. (“Leave out the part about how it's written into the loan,” smart banker winks to mortgage lender. “Tell 'em it's free money.”) Use your house as the piggy bank it was meant to be, refinance and get out all that old, dusty principle collecting in there. Or better, buy up houses, as many as you can see yourself owning, and sit back and collect rent from the lower classes. And millions of people bought it. Credit debt soared. Homes were bought with risky loans. Investors were the new gurus, the classy new kids on the block. Then it caved, as the banks and Wall Street knew it would, and took the rest of the economy with it. We started not one, not two, not even three wars, but also a whole collection of secret wars, some forty documented wars carried out by our generals and financed by our tax dollars. Our war machine keeps chugging right alone, preemptively striking whoever has huge oil reserves and unpopular leadership. That is the fruit of 911. It is a war being fought over ideology. We have to bring terrorist to justice by bankrupting our country and helping corporations stay competitive. And there is “no money” for home improvements. Our country is sagging around the waist, the jowls, the ankles and the eyes. Our education system should be the next candidate for an extreme makeover before we can even think about Racing to the Top, or whatever Obama's strategy appears to be. How we can make it happen when states want to cut away all the fat from the bloated, excessive teachers' salaries is a mystery to yours truly. Nothing makes people more committed to their job like fearing they might have to work harder for way less money or have no work at all. Now that's motivation! Finally, we have the American psyche itself. Some people believe one or two of these wars is wrong but they're too polite to say so. It would be rude and crass to call Bush and Cheney liars. And how in God's name could they go around their friends if they stood up and called for these war criminals to face the International Court? Someone might yell in their face or they might have to march in a street or something. They only want to be seen camping out for the latest I-Phone or downing shooters on Facebook. Or maybe raising money for the PTA or swapping partners at a swinger's party. Anything to keep from holding people accountable, which can have all kinds of messy consequences. I don't advocate violence. But I think that's a part of what keeps some people from looking closer at what's happening. We secretly fear if we do learn the truth we might turn to violence. That's one thing we know about ourselves as Americans: cross this line and I'll blow your brains out. As long as the government is raising hell in someone else's country, with someone else's kids, destroying some other person's home, that's their problem. But cross this line and I'll blow your brains out. That's my right, as an American. So here's where I believe we have some things in common. Let's get out of the mindset of holding people accountable for big stuff, like mass invasions and trillon dollar deficits. Let's start on little things and let's start on ourselves. I love the earth, don't you? All that clean fresh air and wonderful clear stretches of land and that vast breathing ocean, let's enjoy it right there, as it is, nothing added from us. It would be great to see it stay there, just as it is. But I know if I continue to consume and live as I do, my choices, multiplied by five billion people, are going to come back to haunt me. So in honor of the earth and the power of little things to make a big difference I will publicize every environmentally sound technology I can find. And I pledge to be off of gasoline in one year. I will be investigating ways to convert my car into a clean burning energy machine. One of these new technologies will be powering my ride, and soon. I hope you will join me. We can get off gasoline and put an end to the need for us to be overseas, or on pristine land raping the earth for resources. To support this pledge sign my petition available online. Our focus on getting free of the old technology and personally supporting clean energy will make projects like the Keystone Pipeline and off shore drilling a thing of the past. We do have a great deal of power, we have a great deal of freedom to make a difference. Join me in committing to getting off gasoline in a year. I want this to be one of the fruits of 911. I hope you say the same.

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