Rob Gabriele

This year is the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

There will be numerous memorials remembering those who died and processing the tragedy and trauma visited upon our national community. This will be a necessary and good thing for us as Americans to do.

In addition to these memorials, the Richmond Peace Education Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia are using the occasion to look closely at 15 years of “the war on terror” and ask if we are better off than on Sept. 10, 2001.

Our answer, unfortunately, is no.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, our country has prosecuted a global “war on terror” with no deadlines, no long-term strategies, no clearly defined enemies and no exits, keeping us in a perpetual state of war with one armed conflict succeeding the next, and, in fact, creating the enemy for the next war.

We have engaged in illegal torture and assassination, even of U.S. citizens, without benefit of trial.

Our government has seriously eroded the civil liberties and privacy protections that are the foundation of a free and democratic society.

Many of our political leaders have encouraged fear, jingoism and hatred of “the other” to promote the illusion of insecurity in order to coerce the acquiescence of the American people while encouraging the growth of extremism here at home.

We have turned police forces throughout the country into paramilitary occupying forces with a tragic record of killing people of color.

We have devoted most of our discretionary budget to war and militarism year after year at a time of deep economic suffering, while withholding the real investments in infrastructure, human needs and green technology that would actually lay the groundwork for a healthy future.

These activities have made us less safe, less free and poorer. If we continue on our current course, we’ll inflict deep and lasting damage to our democracy, our economy and our values, while producing a world that is less safe for our children.

It is time for a reassessment.

Together, as engaged citizens, we must work to halt the militarization of police forces, the decline of privacy and the growth of the surveillance state and the growth of endless war. We must call out political leaders who stoke the baked in racism and nativism of the so-called “war on terror,” which defines “terrorists” as brown-skinned Muslims while allowing extremism to grow dramatically in this country.

In the midst of a national election in which the candidate of one of the major parties is an authoritarian and irrational demagogue, it is more important than ever that informed and engaged citizens present a vision for our country that draws on the best of our democratic values; proposes diplomacy and dialogue rather than endless war; creates community across racial, ethnic and religious divides; and builds bridges to understand other people rather than walls to keep them out.

Remember, in the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt for a single moment that a small group of committed citizens has the power to change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

The writer is vice chair of the Richmond Peace Education Center’s Board of Directors.