This week’s reading in PHUS, made me think of a couple things, especially in the midst of the recent election. I found it interesting that the 2000 election was so similar to this year’s election in the sense that the last few states were very close calls. However, it is interesting to see the views on the issues when party lines are switched. The common narrative lately is that President Trump is unfairly pushing for a recount and that he is unwilling to concede the race. However, according to this reading, it seems like that is almost exactly what the Democratic party did, as the case went to the supreme court. On the flip side, Republicans in 2000 seem to have taken steps to avoid a recount. Democrats in 2000 argued that “the court did not have the right to interfere with Florida’s Supreme court interpretation of the law. It is so interesting to me to see how dead set both parties can be on their opinions of this issue today, yet 20 years ago they were entirely flipped. It makes me question the intentions of the parties. If they can’t be consistent on their opinions, it makes them both look self centered and narcissistic.
In terms of the war on terrorism, this different perspective gave me a new lens. I was not old enough to remember 9/11 or its immediate effects, but I hear stories of the way that this catastrophe brought our country together closer than almost any time before. I understand that this event made people proud to be an American because they all had gone through something together. However, I didn’t really think about the Muslim population’s viewpoint. I agree with president Bush’s statement that there needs to be a distinction between the dangerous Muslim terrorist group and Muslims that have no connection to it at all. Otherwise, there is widespread discrimination against an entire religion. To hear the stories of Muslims that were affected by the United States aggressive response to the bombings gave me a new perspective to think about.
The last quote from Robert Bowman is very important to consider at all times. He says “We should do good instead of evil. Who would try to stop us? Who would hate us? who would want to bomb us? That is the truth the American people need to hear” (Zinn p. 682). I think it is an important point not only from a national standpoint, but also in our day to day interactions with others across all areas of race, ethnicity, and religion. Doing good to others, often returns in mutual feelings of respect and appreciation.
I also found myself pondering about the Muslim’s perspective during and after 9/11. As an American, I feel like we only really talk about our perspective on the tragedy, yet what we did after, bombing many innocent people and not really thinking through why they attacked us in the first place, is a component that should definitely be highlighted more.
I too find it really interesting to see the correlation between the 2000 election and the 2020 election. I know this gets reiterated a lot but it’s crazy how history repeats itself. Something that I wondered while reading the article was how much white Americans impacted the lives of Muslims after the 9/11 attacks. These people went from feeling somewhat safe to feeling like they are out of place all the time. I hope that the Muslim stereotypes that have been around since the Crusades can hopefully go away sometime soon; however, with tension in the Middle East rising, it doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon.
I also thought the quote from Robert Bowman was very important and I hope one day, the United States focuses on doing just good and not trying to justify their evil acts. The United States has always pictured itself as a powerful country that can do no wrong. If that were actually true, then the United States wouldn’t have nearly as many problems inside and outside of our nation that we do today. The transition to becoming a humanitarian superpower vs a military one, would it no way erase all the bad that we have done as a country. But, at the very least, it would be moving away from allowing these bad acts on our behalf to continue.
I completely agree with you about the arguments made in the first paragraph. This election holds many similarities to the 2000 election, yet the Republicans and Donald Trump are being scrutinized by the left-wing for things that they did, just 20 years prior. I believe that the actions and rhetoric of the Democrats is very hypocritical as they did the same thing, but will refuse to acknowledge that.