See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love

by Valarie Kaur

On the very night of the attacks, President Bush declared a “war against terrorism” and divided the world into us and them: “You are either with us or against us.” Grieving is a process that takes time and stillness and presence. It is impossible to grieve and prepare to kill at the same time. So, despite all the performances of national mourning, we as a nation had little time and space to be present to our pain and all that it had to teach us. Unresolved grief inside a person is tragic; unresolved grief inside a nation is catastrophic: It releases enormous aggression. In the name of the dead—in Joe’s name—the U.S. war on terror that began in Afghanistan would come to span at least two decades, three presidencies, and seventy-six countries; cost more than $5.6 trillion; and kill more than one million people. One million. And every year on the 9/11 anniversary at Ground Zero, Joe’s name is read and broadcast to the nation to justify it. Meanwhile, the same aggression that powers a perpetual war abroad has created new norms for the hate and criminalization of Muslims and immigrants at home. It fueled the resurgence of a white nationalist movement that would, in time, overtake the highest offices of the nation.