Last night, I felt I should be a good Democrat, so I watched the Republican National Convention.

And, like a good Democrat, I could really only watch about 15 minutes of it. It wasn’t the unrelenting praise given to President Bush that bothered me, because yes, it is the Republican National Convention. And, to be honest, it wasn’t the talk of the necessity to go to war in Iraq, because again, it is the Republican National Convention. It was the unyielding topic of Sept. 11 that would not allow me to watch anymore. To every American, Sept. 11 has countless amounts of emotional weight, and with that, hangs at the deepest core of our existence. Each one of us has a story about where we were, how we found out about it, if we had family in New York, etc. Each one of us personally connects with that date. With every passing year and, every flip of our calendars, we will be reminded of the 9/11 tragedy.

By placing their convention only a few miles away from the Twin Towers and using the tragedy as the basis of their political rhetoric, the Republicans are disrespecting America. It does not provide solace or support to the American public, and it does not console those families who lost someone in the attack. It is pure political manipulation, solely to win votes in the upcoming election.

In a post 9/11 world, where every day terror levels change as though they were picked out of a hat, where television news sources act as a medium not to inform, but to perpetuate more fear and worry within the American public, where constant worry of a terrorist threat is looming, our emotions are running high, and both political parties know it. We are a scared and fearful nation. When a child wakes up in the middle of the night because he is scared that there is a monster under his bed, we do not tell him nightmares to make him fall back asleep. We do not add wood to his fire.

The Republican National Convention seemed to feed itself on fear. Yes, we should be extremely worried about terrorism, and yes, we need to do something about it, but we cannot achieve anything when fear consumes our minds. Fear and reason cannot coexist. With a frightened nation in the palms of the Republican Party, this fear allows for a swift manipulation of votes.

At the same time, it is surprising that President Bush is using Sept. 11 in such a magnitude during the convention, considering his sole, initial opposition to the formation of an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks. When the commission was finally formed, Bush would only give a closed-door testimony with Vice President Cheney.

Rather than taking a more comprehensive approach to terrorism, this administration continues to treat the American public as children waking up from a nightmare. Our frightened nation looks to President Bush for certainty, and he exerts it. He gives clarity through single sentence responses. He gives hope to our community that we are fighting evil, that the good guys will overcome, and that God is on our side. However, fighting terrorism is not as simple as looking under a bed or searching through a closet only to say that everything is ‘all right.’ It deserves complex thought, intricate answers and criticism.

A scared nation is one that doesn’t move. It is as though a bee has landed on us, and the advice we receive is this: Don’t move, it’s OK; everything will be fine if you just stay still, and make sure to vote for Bush in November, because if you don’t, you might get stung.

Marissa Milstein ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in English and anthropology.