You’re the President of the United States on 11 September 2001. Time to give your speech to the nation. What do you say?
Admittedly, I’ve had five years to think about this. But I’d build my talk around something like this:
“Terrorism only works when you’re afraid. The terrorists want you to be afraid. I want you to be brave.
“The terrorists would like nothing more than to see us throw away the freedoms that make us great. I want you to defend and live those freedoms.
“The terrorists want us to turn on each other and tear each other apart. I want all of us to stand united, as Americans.
“We can beat this thing, but we’re going to beat it by using the best that’s in us, and not the worst.”
12 September 2006 at 5:24 am
Nice.
I have a sneaking suspicion that you would have been able to say something better than GW anyway had you not had 5 years to prepare…
12 September 2006 at 5:30 am
Maybe so, but talk about pressure!
Man, I wish Al Gore had been president instead. If I could turn one election result around in the last 50 years, that’d be the one.
Bush has done exactly the wrong thing at every turn.
12 September 2006 at 7:21 am
I’m not one to hate or even dislike people, but I find myself at a complete loss as to how to express my loathing of that man and his administration…
12 September 2006 at 8:55 pm
It’s the end of the world as we know it …
Civilisation itself is under threat!!!
12 September 2006 at 8:55 pm
Oh no, someone got there first.
12 September 2006 at 9:04 pm
Now if we had had the voting preferences like you do in Australia most 95,000 green party votes in Florida would have gone to Gore and we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.
13 September 2006 at 2:17 am
Yeah, but we still would have lost all those Jewish voters who went for Buchanan.
13 September 2006 at 1:07 pm
One more thing: we need to find another general name for the attacks. People have been calling it September 11, but that’s a date, right? We need that back. People have birthdays then, and having their birthday linked with something horrible is depressing.
So we need a new name for it. I’m going to suggest: “The only day when anything bad ever happened to anyone, ever ever ever“.
I think it has a ring to it, and given the news coverage and the days of mourning, etc, I think that’s what Americans actually believe. So I think it’d work out well. What do you think?
13 September 2006 at 10:12 pm
Twin Towers Day?
You’re right, a white bear’s birthday is September 11 and she lives in Brooklyn. How sucky is that? I notice she avoided all mention in her blog.
And anyway it’s 11/9
14 September 2006 at 6:11 am
That’s right Snowqueen..It’s 11/9. In Australia anyway.
15 September 2006 at 5:13 am
Its very catchy Daniel… 🙂
16 September 2006 at 7:47 pm
It’s funny. I keep hearing that this was the event that Bush handled so well. Even by people who don’t like Bush. “He rallied the people together on 9/11”, you hear people say.
Memories are short.
I remember it being a long time before we even knew where he was. As a matter of fact the on air commentators were clamoring for an appearance from him before he peeped his head out and then he was atop the rubble all mission accomplished and what not. Kind of like the whole Katrina thing. Where is he and then a week later, “I’m on top of the situation.”
So my vote goes for:
9/11: Where the hell did Bush go Day.
17 September 2006 at 7:01 am
I remember this too. Even after reading this article, I’m still not sure where the hell he was.
Even though I like it a lot, I’m not sure ‘Where the Hell Did Bush Go’ Day would be precise enough. It could refer to too many things: including post-Katrina (as you say), and most of 2001.