The Memory Hole: Some random post 9-11-13 thoughts

Remember that time in the 1990s when the face of terrorism in America wasn't Muslim Arabs, it was white right-wing Christian Americans? Of course not, because the Oklahoma City Bombing has disappeared down the same memory hole as every other unfortunate fact that does not fit our constant mythologizing. Did you know that  the World Trade Center would have only been forty years old now if it had stayed standing? People talk about it like it was some timeless and long-standing Wonder Of The World, like the Great Wall or Colossus Of Rhodes except American, so better. Less than thirty when it came down. At thirty-five, I have now had a longer life-span than the World Trade Center. Just saying. I'm getting distracted. The point is the memory hole that American history disappears into before being replaced by American myth. People can get on television now and imply that all Muslims are terrorists and that all terrorists are Muslim, when it wasn't that long ago at all (still less than 20 years!) that the most grievous, despicable act of terrorism on U.S. soil came not from some turbaned jihadists dead-set on their seventy-two virgin reward, but from some crew-cutted Caucasian conservative Christians who "wanted their country back." This has been forgotten to the point where in the 2008 election, people could bandy about that "Obama" sounded like "Osama" but no one pointed out how similar "McCain" and "McVeigh" were as well. So: terrorism is once again embodied by scary foreigners with a different religion and a different language, calling to mind the "all immigrants are bomb-throwing anarchists" crap of the 1920s. And who was it that was responsible for shifting the dialogue, for changing the public's perception of terrorist away from right-wing Christians? Right-wing Christians. Just saying.