{"id":1117,"date":"2007-10-02T15:27:39","date_gmt":"2007-10-02T15:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2007-10-02T15:27:39","modified_gmt":"2007-10-02T15:27:39","slug":"no_mo_911","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/?p=1117","title":{"rendered":"No mo 9\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"

A very good commentary about moving from being 9\/11 people to 9\/12 people.
\nBy Op-Ed Columnist THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
\nClick here: 9\/11 Is Over<\/a>
\nNew York Times, September 30, 2007<\/p>\n


\nSeptember 30, 2007
\nOp-Ed Columnist
\n9\/11 Is Over
\nBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
\nNot long ago, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a fake news story that began like this:
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At a well-attended rally in front of his new ground zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9\/11. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMy fellow citizens of 9\/11, today I will make you a promise,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 said Giuliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAs president of 9\/11, I will usher in a bold new 9\/11 for all.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 If elected, Giuliani would inherit the duties of current 9\/11 President George W. Bush, including making grim facial expressions, seeing the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conflicts in terms of good and evil, and carrying a bullhorn at all state functions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nLike all good satire, the story made me both laugh and cry, because it reflected something so true \u00e2\u20ac\u201d how much, since 9\/11, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The United States of Fighting Terrorism.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Times columnists are not allowed to endorse candidates, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no rule against saying who will not get my vote: I will not vote for any candidate running on 9\/11. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need another president of 9\/11. We need a president for 9\/12. I will only vote for the 9\/12 candidate.
\nWhat does that mean? This: 9\/11 has made us stupid. I honor, and weep for, all those murdered on that day. But our reaction to 9\/11 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d mine included \u00e2\u20ac\u201d has knocked America completely out of balance, and it is time to get things right again.
\nIt is not that I thought we had new enemies that day and now I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Yes, in the wake of 9\/11, we need new precautions, new barriers. But we also need our old habits and sense of openness. For me, the candidate of 9\/12 is the one who will not only understand who our enemies are, but who we are.
\nBefore 9\/11, the world thought America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s slogan was: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where anything is possible for anybody.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But that is not our global brand anymore. Our government has been exporting fear, not hope: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Give me your tired, your poor and your fingerprints.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nYou may think Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay is a prison camp in Cuba for Al Qaeda terrorists. A lot of the world thinks it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a place we send visitors who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give the right answers at immigration. I will not vote for any candidate who is not committed to dismantling Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay and replacing it with a free field hospital for poor Cubans. Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay is the anti-Statue of Liberty.
\nRoger Dow, president of the Travel Industry Association, told me that the United States has lost millions of overseas visitors since 9\/11 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d even though the dollar is weak and America is on sale. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Only the U.S. is losing traveler volume among major countries, which is unheard of in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mr. Dow said.
\nTotal business arrivals to the United States fell by 10 percent over the 2004-5 period alone, while the number of business visitors to Europe grew by 8 percent in that time. The travel industry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent Discover America Partnership study concluded that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the U.S. entry process has created a climate of fear and frustration that is turning away foreign business and leisure travelers and hurting America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s image abroad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Those who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t visit us, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know us.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to see us salvage something decent in Iraq that might help tilt the Middle East onto a more progressive pathway. That was and is necessary to improve our security. But sometimes the necessary is impossible \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and we just can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep chasing that rainbow this way.
\nLook at our infrastructure. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just the bridge that fell in my hometown, Minneapolis. Fly from Zurich\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultramodern airport to La Guardia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dump. It is like flying from the Jetsons to the Flintstones. I still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get uninterrupted cellphone service between my home in Bethesda and my office in D.C. But I recently bought a pocket cellphone at the Beijing airport and immediately called my wife in Bethesda \u00e2\u20ac\u201d crystal clear.
\nI just attended the China clean car conference, where Chinese automakers were boasting that their 2008 cars will meet \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Euro 4\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d European Union \u00e2\u20ac\u201d emissions standards. We used to be the gold standard. We aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anymore. Last July, Microsoft, fed up with American restrictions on importing brain talent, opened its newest software development center in Vancouver. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in Canada, folks. If Disney World can remain an open, welcoming place, with increased but invisible security, why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t America?
\nWe can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to keep being this stupid! We have got to get our groove back. We need a president who will unite us around a common purpose, not a common enemy. Al Qaeda is about 9\/11. We are about 9\/12, we are about the Fourth of July \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which is why I hope that anyone who runs on the 9\/11 platform gets trounced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A very good commentary about moving from being 9\/11 people to 9\/12 people. By Op-Ed Columnist THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Click here: 9\/11 Is Over New York Times, September 30, 2007<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politicsculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}