September 11, 2001 filled me with horror and sadness at the tragic loss of life and the wounding of our national psyche. Although I hoped there would be a period of introspection, reaching out and searching for understanding, I feared the country would turn xenophobic, intolerant and self-righteous. My distrust and dislike of President Bush and his administraton led me to the latter conclusion and the decision to leave U.S. government service after September 11. Traditional American values of optimism, openness, risk-taking, determination and fairness had been somehow sidetracked, and I could see this getting worse after the 9/11 attacks. Rick’s Cafe became the vehicle for my mission to resuscitate American values, and at the same time show something about Morocco’s special qualities. That I succeeded in re-creating a Casablanca legend that never existed is credit to those traditional American values. My work was made more difficult and challenging – and is to this day – by the dishonesty, arrogance, callousness, hypocrisy, insensitivity and illegal actions of the U.S. Administration. I don’t need an anniversary of September 11, 2001 to serve as a reminder for not a day goes by that I don’t think of the tragic loss of life and the disastrous path on which Mr. Bush has chosen to take our country, joined by the equally guilty enabelers in Congress and the mainstream media. The war in Afghanistan cut short and the failure to capture bin Laden in Tora Bora, diversion of resources to Iraq for a war based on lies, doctored intelligence, media manipulation, torture, disregard for human rights, activities above the law, spying on Americans without warrants and the national disgrace of Katrina with the loss of America’s most culturally diverse city...New Orleans... Bush, Cheny, Rumsfeld, Rice and their gang of sycophants have blithly gone from photo-op to canned speech repeating the same lines and lies over and over and over while the divisions in the U.S. between rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, ethnic communities, muslims, jews and christians continue to polarize the nation. The level of corruption and corporate malfeasance is extreme to the extent the U.S. has ceded their ability to criticize other less-developed nations with the same problems. It was no surprise that the anniversary of Katrina passed with perfunctory photo ops and drive-bys and then on to fear-mongering in a series of speeches in advance of the 9/11 anniversary. Into this cynical cycle came the ABC/Disney right wing docudrama which in real “Fantasyland” fashion tries to lay the blame for 9/11 on the Clinton Administration! I hope that President Clinton, Madeliene Albright and Sandy Berger sue the asses off of Disney. One benefit of this callous attempt to use the tragic loss of life for political gain is that it has served to remind those who might have forgotten just how much better things were – in every way – during the two terms of President Clinton. The more times President Clinton can comment on this latest attempt to smear him the better it will be for Democrats leading up to the November elections. As President Clinton commented with regard to the latest binge of fear-mongering speeches, “They bring that old dog out so often before elections it’s got a bad case of mange.” Meanwhile, I’m still here in Casablanca and happy to welcome all to our nostalgic gin joint, a reminder of happier times to be sure but with American optimism that happy times will soon be here again.
Madame Rick – September 11, 2006
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