Answer Me This

Ten years ago I was working my very first job out of college, beginning my first serious relationship, living for the first time in my own apartment. I wanted to write, but never really made the time. I was taking a ballet class, watching Sex and the City, and eating plenty of Amy's vegan pot pies. My world was transitioning from friend-centered to boyfriend-centered, which was kind of thrilling but mostly terrifying. Life was about to get much more complicated.

I must admit that when 9/11 happened I paused long enough to be shocked and saddened, then went about trying to figure out my own life. I was haunted by difficult pirouettes and an increasingly jealous boyfriend, not America-hating terrorists. So it took me awhile to start asking the kinds of questions that I wish more people were asking, even ten years later. Here I will issue a disclaimer: since I recognize that 9/11 is a highly taboo subject matter that even good liberals don't dare question, I am not in any way claiming to know "the truth." I am, however, intrigued by a number of FACTS, which raise some chilling questions. For example:

Why did scores of people (firefighters, police officers, and eye-witness newscasters alike) report hearing explosions in the towers, as though it were a controlled demolition?

Why are these the only steel buildings in the history of the world that have fallen in their own footprint from fires?

Why were bomb-sniffing dogs removed from the site in the days before the attack?

Why did the government issue a stand-down order to air defense?

Why were the towers closed the weekend before the attacks for an unprecedented "power down," in which all security cameras were turned off?

Why does no one talk about the fact that George Bush's brother, Marvin Bush, was head of security for the World Trade Center?

Why was the mayor of San Francisco warned not to fly on September 11?

And I could go on. There's so much information out there it's really rather daunting. Aside from way too many discrepancies about the attacks, there were the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan afterward. Ten years later, our military is still in both countries and our economy is in the toilet.

So, yes, I agree with the media and all those patriotic folks who declare that we should never forget the tragic events of September 11. But what good is memory without inquiry? What could be more patriotic than insisting that the government be held accountable to its citizens?