Thought it is always important to keep looking forward, to ruminate on the future and the path from our current location and situation to the ideal, it is also vital to learn from mistakes of the past, so they are not perpetrated repeatedly in our cyclical social and physical environments.
And the mistakes that have been made! The lies that have been perpetrated! The cloak that has been pulled over our collective eyes!
If misfortune and tragedy can beget progress and evolution, than what an opportunity was lost after the attacks of 9/11; what a vital energy squandered. What a chance at emboldening given to fear, a chance at building given to destruction, an obstinate leadership walled off from those they represent, making decisions in an ivory tower of deceit.
Thomas Friedman explains, from his important work, Hot Flat, and Crowded, the scenario and possibilities squandered...
Think about this: The price of gasoline on the morning of September 11, 2001, was between $1.60 and $1.80 a gallon in America. Had President Bush imposed a $1-a-gallon 'Patriot Tax' the next day, gasoline would have been close to $3 a gallon. The US Government would have gotten the revenue boost, demand for gasoline would have fallen, and demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles would have soared. It would not be out of bounds to speculate that even with the rising demand in China and India over the past seven years, gasoline at the pump in America would be $3 to $4 a gallon, but we would already have been through the transition. Many more Americans would be driving more fuel-efficient cars...and the US Treasury rather than the Iranian Treasury would be getting the extra dollar in the gasoline price. Because we did not have courage to make that transition on September 12, 2001, gasoline on September 12, 2008 was more than $4 a gallon, and the fuel economy of American cars was still lousy, and the billions of dollars we've paid out due to the doubling of gasoline prices since September 11 has all gone to the oil producers, including governments that have drawn a bulls-eye on our backs.
