WHO IS THIS WE?

NY Times Editorial Revising 9/11 "Without realizing it we had internalized what happened four years ago in a rather tidy story arc: Terrorists struck with brutal violence and the country responded. Everyone rose to the occasion - rallying around New York City, comforting the survivors and doing "whatever it takes" to make the country, if not totally safe, at least totally ready for whatever came next. Mistakes were made, but we would learn from them, and wind up stronger and better prepared."

And Joe Conason's piece in Salon The bitter lessons of four years which begins, "It would have been almost impossible to imagine, during the days and weeks that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that we might someday look back on that depressing time with a tinge of nostalgia. For Americans, and especially for those of us who live in New York City, those autumn memories are filled with rage and horror, fire and smoke, loss and death; but they are also filled with a spirit of courage, community and real patriotism. United we stood, even behind a government of dubious legitimacy, because we knew that there was no other way to defend what we valued." Impossible to imagine?

Back to the refugee and the evacuee, if one does not see oneself in THAT United we, where does one stand? What if one refuses and/or is not granted the title of citizen; what if one is not the refugee in our midst that we cannot look away from, but the refugee?

What if one knows oneself to be inside and outside; double consciousness?