Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: Editorial/Opinion

None of us will ever forget the horrendous acts and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Just as those who went through Pearl Harbor and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert will never forget where they were when the fateful events took place, neither will we.

What we should also never forget is that Machiavellian political minds will never cease in attempting to exploit our national tragedy for their own gain. Republicans used the electoral strategy of scaring people into thinking an attack was imminent and that the only salvation was a Republican Congress. With the Congress and the presidency, however, they refused to implement the bipartisan 9/11 Commission's recommendations to make America safe. In 2007, the first thing the Democratic House did was to introduce and pass House Resolution 1, which implemented those recommendations. Instead of pursuing the war against the terrorists and their allies, the Taliban in Afghanistan, President Bush led the country to war with Iraq, distracting us and diluting our forces for the War on Terror.

No one has the claim to Sept. 11, 2001.

Despite their strategy coming apart almost as fast as the Bush Administration, they haven't quit using demagoguery and scare tactics. A conservative organization called the Young America's Foundation is coordinating a national effort to get all College Republicans (including our own) to organize a flag-planting and recognition ceremony of those who fell on Sept. 11. While this in and of itself is a noble goal, the strategy guide they have reads like a campaign how-to manual, talking about building alliances with other conservative groups, getting conservative talk show hosts to plug the event, and getting a conservative speaker on campus. What kind of organization wouldn't get behind recognizing our innocent fallen civilians on that horrendous day?

After seeing the event for the first time last year, and after becoming president of the College Democrats last spring, I thought if there was an event that College Republicans and College Democrats could participate on, it would be remembering Sept. 11. My invitation to offer both a sponsorship to the event as well as volunteers was turned away by our UW-Eau Claire College Republicans, presumably because they want to own the tragedy just as the national Republican Party has tried to do. A co-sponsorship, even if only symbolic, would at least indicate that despite this country's divisions we can agree on one thing - that those who died on that ominous morning must be remembered, and that the terrorists who caused it must pay.

Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani continues to exploit that fateful day for his own political gains. A part of his organization ran a fundraiser where the entrance was nine dollars and eleven cents. In Republican presidential debates, he continues to use 9/11 to bolster his own inexperience in foreign policy by trying to lash himself to the terrorist attack and make "World Trade Center," "9/11" and "Giuliani" synonymous.

It is time the Republicans realize that national tragedies such as Sept. 11, 2001, are not the tool of one party or another to use, not a ploy to win votes, and not a way to exploit people's patriotism for political gain. It is time that we declare a truce on political warfare on the one day where all in this great land are not Republicans, Democrats, or Independents, but instead Americans, somber and solemn in our remembrance of the fallen.

Jambrek is a sophomore political science major and president of College Democrats.

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