Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20) released the following statement in honor of the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001:
"This terrible chapter in American history will never be forgotten, and now we can go to sleep knowing that no more innocent lives will be taken by Osama bin Laden, thanks to the brave men and women in our armed forces and special forces who worked together to bring him to justice. There are not enough words that could properly thank the men and women who bravely fought, and continue to fight, to protect all Americans from terrorism. We are grateful to those who fight to protect our American way of life.
"September 11 was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history, but America is resilient. As we have proven over the last 10 years, the American spirit cannot be broken. We always have been – and always will remain – the land of the free and the home of the brave."
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I mourn on 9/11, but not for the reasons most do. I am not cold to the 3,000 lives lost that day, but I put it in perspective.
Since 9/11 we have lost 400,000 American women from breast cancer, 160,000 from drunk driving, 1 million from prescription drugs, 300,000 from guns, another 300,000 from suicide, and 3 MILLION from obesity. For a surviving spouse or child, a life lost to 9/11 is no more or less tragic than a life lost to an auto accident. And while we lost 3,000 to 9/11, we lose 40,000 EACH YEAR in auto accidents in the United States.
How many lives could we have saved if we had spent the money, energy and national attention on curing and preventing obesity that we did on terrorism in the wake of 9/11? From 9/11 to the death of Bin Laden, the U.S. spent $1.28 trillion on the "war on terror." What would life in America be like today if we had spent that money instead in a "war on obesity" or a "war on cancer"?
What would our lives be like if we had spent that $1.28 trillion on developing alternative forms of energy, and freeing ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil? Or creating jobs? Or educating our children?
What if instead of invading Iraq, we had spent that money on supporting the 9/11 survivors and first responders?
I mourn today not so much for the loss of life we suffered on that day, but for the loss of our American way of life, which is an even bigger loss. And the fact that we allowed it, caused it, pays poor tribute to the lives that were lost on 9/11.
We have spent ourselves into poverty as a result of 9/11. We have surrendered our civil rights. We have killed hundreds of thousands of people who had nothing to do with 9/11. Our national discussion on foreign policy no longer contains the word "peace"; we don't even talk about that anymore. Instead, we talk about various kinds of war as the only method of keeping us safe from the threat of terrorism (and its relatively minute loss of life). We have made air travel burdensome, while not actually making it safer.
The only way that 15 men with box cutters can take down our nation is if we give them such inordinate attention and priority that we abandon our national identity, sacrifice our freedoms, spend ourselves deep into debt, and live in fear. And we have done all those things.
On 9/11 we were attacked by 15 people. And they defeated us. With box cutters. No army had to invade our country, no missiles had to be launched, not a single gun had to be fired. They beat us with our own fear and obsession.
That is why I mourn today.
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