"Self Evident" - Ani Difranco

I was 16 and living right across the river with my whole life in front of me when 9/11/2001 changed all the potential my life had. My peers lost parents, I feared losing half the men of my generation in a war, and over the next 10 years I watched things get worst and worst by our own making. Suddenly it seemed like the betterment of our own country was completely eclipsed by the importance of retribution. And out of all the overly patriotic things I was forced to listen to in the aftermath I cringed with the thought of demonizing anyone who looked like they could be Middle Eastern, and invading a country when it was a small group of people that attacked us.
Ani Difranco has always been politically driven, and her poem/song "Self Evident" encompassed many things I was feeling but felt I could never say for fear of being attacked as insensitive or un-patriotic.

“On the day that America
fell to its knees
after strutting around for a century
without saying thank you
or please……
And I'll tell you what; while we're at it
you can keep the pentagon
You can keep the propaganda
keep each and every TV
that's been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution
perpetuate retribution “

Kat M