Written by Carlos T Mock, MD   

To say that every American was affected in some way by the attacks on September 11, 2001, is the same as to say the sky is blue. However, each American has weathered the response differently as time goes on...
I still remember that terrible morning when my partner, Bill Rattan, woke me up because a plane had hit one of the World Trade Towers. We were both glued to the TV as we saw a second plane hit the second Tower, and then the incredible collapse of both towers, all there for all Americans to absorb. Not soon after, the plane crash at The Pentagon and the fourth plane which was headed for Washington, D.C., targeting either the Capitol Building or the White House, but crashed in a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to retake control of the airliner. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

I remember being numb, having a sense that this was a joke—someone was repeating The War of the Worlds hoax by Mercury Theatre on the Air—performed on Halloween, October 30, 1938 and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated "news bulletins,” which suggested that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress—someone was playing a hoax, we could not accept that this was really happening.

For about an hour, I was in denial...then the realization that this was not a hoax became clear to both of us: nearly 3,000 victims and the 19 hijackers died in the attacks. Among the 2,753 victims who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center were 343 firefighters and 60 police officers from New York City and the Port Authority, and 8 private emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Another 184 people were killed in the attack on the Pentagon. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 70 countries.

For the first time in history SCATANA (Plan for the Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids) was invoked, establishing an ATC Zero condition, closing all airspace and immediately grounding all non-emergency civilian aircraft in the United States, Canada, and several other countries, and so stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the world. The Federal Aviation Administration closed American airspace to all international flights, causing about five hundred flights to be turned back or redirected to other countries. Canada received 226 of the diverted flights and launched Operation Yellow Ribbon to deal with the large numbers of grounded planes and stranded passengers.

We got mad, really mad; and both Bill and I wanted the US to obliterate the Middle East. As the culprits were identified, we supported the American invasion of Afghanistan and hoped the US would bring to justice the infamous Osama Bin Laden. Unfortunately, our then President George W. Bush got distracted with a war we didn’t need and invaded Iraq.

The politics of the events of September 11, 2001 will be discussed and re-examine under the microscope of history, but in the meantime our lives went on.

As a gay man, I love a great deal. To encourage travel, the airlines sold their seats for pennies. I remember that on September 15, I booked five trips to Puerto Rico—where I’m from—and three trips to Europe, and two trips to South America: all of them for under two thousand dollars. We didn’t book anymore, because there was no room in the calendar. So while the world went to war, while the hunt for Osama bin Laden was going on, we were traveling at bargain prices; and decided to completely live in denial. Funny, but when I found out that I was HIV positive I reacted the same way for two years: denial: The sky was cloudless and blue....

The problem with denial is that eventually you have to come back to the real world, and just like I started treatment for my HIV, I started dealing with “The War on Terror.” I’m 55 years old, and I consider myself somewhat intelligent, but to watch president Bush screw the American economy, while carrying a war of necessity and a war of choice—neither of which was funded—and going from a country that was admired and respected in the world to a country that became the laughing stock of the world was too much to tolerate: Thunderstorms became the forecast...

I lost it when Bush used same sex marriage to get re-elected in 2004. Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force described the election results as “a right hook to the chin ... but certainly not a knockout.” Said Oregon activist Roey Thorpe, “On the road to equality and freedom, there are always setbacks.”

Oregon represented gay-rights groups’ best hope for victory, but an amendment banning same-sex marriage prevailed there with 57 percent of the votes, leaving some activists in tears. Similar bans won by larger margins in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio and Utah.

More than 20 million Americans voted on the measures, which triumphed overall by a 2-to-1 ratio. In the four Southern states, the amendments received at least three-quarters of the votes, including 86 percent in Mississippi; the closest outcome besides Oregon was in Michigan, where the ban got 59 percent.

Faced with four more years of “W” (we never thought he actually won in 2000) and being declared second class citizens by The American electorate, we felt we had to leave our country: category five hurricanes were coming....

I talked with the Spanish consulate and was ready to make a move to Barcelona, but we were stopped by the fact that we needed to have insurance. Since we were both HIV positive, our insurance was Medicare, which is not accepted in Europe, or anywhere else outside the US: So we boycotted Christmas in 2004 and sent out black cards to each person we had addresses for: explaining why we felt there would be no Christmas in 2004. It was the first time I felt I didn’t want to be an American citizen, but had no where to hide. I started calling myself Puerto Rican and denying Bush was my President.

As we suffered the atrocities committed by the Bush administration, The Daily Show became our nightly relief—we wish to thank Jon Stewart for the free therapy. Every time we heard the word “nucular” by “W” it was as if someone was stabbing us with a dagger. But when Mr. Stewart made fun of it, we were healed a little...

Then came 2008 and we had hope. Even though we were both for Hillary, we were glad to see the Democrats take the White House and both Houses of Congress: Bright skies...

Unfortunately, Obama was not the President we had hoped for. First of all, he was against marriage Equality: and worst of all, he turned out to be a sucker. His inability to lead and his naiveté in dealing with The Republicans proved fatal. The 2010 elections were a disaster: and the birth of the Tea Party moved the Republican Party to the extreme right: to a point where “W” seemed to be a moderate. Obama was unable to end the Bush tax cuts in the budget negotiations and was ineffective in dealing with the Tea Party in the debt ceiling bargain. The US became the world’s laughing stock, again, Congress’s approval rating went down to 12% and Standard and Poor’s downgraded the American debt from AAA to AA+: Severe Thunderstorms warnings....

Then Osama bin Laden, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 a.m. local time by a United States Navy Seals special forces. The operation, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, was ordered by United States President Barack Obama and carried out in a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation by a team of United States Navy SEALs, with support from CIA operatives on the ground. The raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan was launched from Afghanistan. After the raid, US forces took bin Laden's body to Afghanistan for identification, then buried it at sea within 24 hours of his death. Al-Qaeda confirmed the death on May 6 with posts made on militant websites, vowing to avenge the killing. The attack was done without permission or knowledge from the Pakistani government, who condemned the action as an invasion of their sovereign status. However, to this day, the main Bush ally in the “war against terror,”who received over 2 billion dollars a year from American taxpayers, has not been able to explain their ignorance—or worse, aid—in the hiding of Osama bin Laden in plain
view, just a few miles from the West Point of Pakistan: sunny weather, with cloud coverings...

We thought the death of Osama Bin Laden would put closure to the 9/11 tragedy. We were also encouraged when the Obama administration finally moved to revoke Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, so now GLBT Americans can serve freely in the armed forces, and the President is coming our way towards Marriage Equality. New York State became the fifth and largest state to legalize same sex marriage, and the mood is finally moving toward Equal rights for the GLBT community. However, the economy is doing poorly and even though the Republicans are doing everything possible to harm our economy so that Obama becomes a one-term president, unemployment has not recovered and we may be nearing a double dip recession. That does not bode well for Mr. Obama chances in 2012.

The truth is that Americans will ALWAYS live under the shadows of the 9/11 tragedy and the two wars we are still fighting are proof of that. We should bring everyone home: Bin Laden is dead—we can rebuild our economy if we just choose to spend all that reconstruction money used in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan right here in the US. We may even be able to balance the budget: So the weather for 2012 is yet to be determined...