The USS New York, made with steel from remnants of the World Trade Center, launched a few months ago, and is an amphibious assault dock (sounds menacing).
7.5 tons of WTC steel. It's like a phoenix of war rising from the ashes of terrorism; a giant steel bastion of potential violence floating on the seas. The lesson we failed to learn from the Sept. 11th attacks is that having huge weapons doesn't always keep a center of the American Capitalist universe from getting flown into and blown up by a bunch of terrorists who are willing to blow themselves up in a battle against our greed.
They may be mislead, just like our own young soldiers, into thinking that there is justice in killing. The terrorists are also trained, like us, to believe that their war and its means are just. They are often mislead by leaders who use religious zealotry to feed their power. Some are motivated by genuine spiritual seeking, but in their violence they are completely off track.
To us they are terrorists. To them, we are terrorists. Until one of us gives up fighting, there will always be war. They may never give up, so we have to. The righteous turn the other cheek. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
The USS New York is a floating bastion of violence and represents our history of violence, and the slavery on which our capitalism was built. The boat represents our righteousness no more than it represents our violence, fear and greed.
What are we so afraid of that we need such a big army to protect us from? Have we built up this force to protect the greedheads more than ourselves? Is the average American, sitting at a desk in an office building, laboring for the profits of some huge corporation, or the man in uniform who is defending this nation which defends those corporations, victims of a savage individualism, inculcated greed, violence, and licentiousness, propped up and called freedom?
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