It’s over. Another 9/11 anniversary in the books. Let us move on to September 12th, a day remembered as an occasion of mourning — but also national unity. We rose together as one people, stronger than before, without regard for differences of race, creed, class or politics. We proudly flew our American flags and vowed to stand against hate of any kind. We were strong.

According to these assholes, anyway:

I want the America of September 12th, 2001 back. There was no party. There was no color or race. There was only unity. There was only freedom loving Americans. pic.twitter.com/bDKbDCpgtR — Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) September 12, 2019

On September 12th, 2001, we remembered what made us all Americans. Today, those foundational ideals and our national symbols – the flag, the pledge, the anthem – are being chipped away. It is time we begin to appreciate who we are as a country again. pic.twitter.com/yrn4DmA8tz — Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 12, 2019

I miss 9/12/01– the day when divisions faded away. When we talked to strangers on subways & grocery lines, & shared our collective pain. We honor those we lost by rekindling the spirit of unity as Americans, once again treating each other with humanity & compassion. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/UbcjUzSKl0 — Kathy Hochul (@LtGovHochulNY) September 12, 2019

I miss the 9/12/01 America. pic.twitter.com/LOReknWJel — Chris Ingram (@ingram16_ingram) September 12, 2019

On September 12, 2001 America was more united that ever. Flags flew over every house and business and people came together to care for one another. It is so essential that we remember the spirit of that time and strive to work together to solve the issues facing our nation today. pic.twitter.com/NGZLdt9cg5 — Dr. Manny For Senate (@DrMannySenate) September 12, 2019

If you think this way, fuck you. If you are nostalgic for a day when people put up posters of their missing loved ones because the bodies hadn’t been found and likely never would be; if you fondly recall the first day of the paralyzing fear and confusion that eventually allowed our government to start spying on us; if you pine for a week when first responders were still breathing in the toxic dust that would give them cancer, then you are a staggering pile of shit.

On September 12, 2001, I got pushed down the steps of a subway station by a woman who called me a "terrorist brown bitch," which I had never been called before. In fact, someone called me that yesterday on the subway, as they do without fail every 9/11 for the past 17 years. — Roopa K.M., MPH (@RoopaMPH) September 12, 2019

Your annual reminder that on September 12, 2001 Providence Police pulled some random Sikh off a train and held him for six hours while other train passengers yelled that he should be killed. https://t.co/J2rFLRXVDb — Matthew Lawrence (@BeefcakeFactory) September 12, 2019

“lEtS aLl LiVe LiKe ItS sEpTeMbEr 12 2001 EvErYdAy…” pic.twitter.com/zv3aXNAoSK — GI Joey Joe Joe (@GIJoeyJoeJoe) September 12, 2019

The spirit of 9/12 when a Sikh man was murdered by bigot days after 9/11 https://t.co/qV22O4eok5 — if beale street could tweet (@BesharmKutti) June 14, 2016

If you yearn for the America of 9/12, you know what you’re really remembering? A time of trauma that was amplified a thousandfold for citizens perceived as the enemy, who faced newly brazen harassment and hate crime. You probably loved people talking about how the U.S. was going to bomb the Middle East back to the Stone Age; maybe you spent hours playing Flash games where you got to shoot Osama bin Laden. I’m sure you didn’t mind that an unpopular, illegitimate, nepotism-hire Republican president suddenly had sky-high approval ratings because people feared looking any less than zealously patriotic. And I bet you’re secretly kinda pissed that restaurants stopped selling “freedom fries,” aren’t you.

We created a Do Not Fly list with like 900k names on it. We unironically had multiple news debate programs where a conservative would argue about the sanctity of life irt stem cell research, and then in less than 5 minutes talk about the necessity of killing muslims. — mugrimm (@unabanned) September 11, 2019

The thing about you 9/12 revisionists is that you can envision peace and solidarity only through mass murder. You have no affection for 9/10, only the aftermath, your American utopia wrought in fire and blood. To you, this country isn’t at its best unless it is under siege from without and creeping toward racist authoritarianism within. It is a paradise of no-fly lists, state-approved torture, color-coded threat levels and an endless war that anyone actually born on September 12th, 2001, is now eligible to fight. (Congratulations to them, by the way.)

But most of all, you romanticize a day when — even as emergency personnel sifted through the rubble for survivors and began to count the dead — you were able to feel right. You always suspected the rest of the world were savages bent on doing us harm. After the first wave of shock on 9/11, you started saying, “I told you so.” It’s in that same air of horrific pride that a certain someone welcomes continued slaughter.

Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016

Pres Trump also said, "I would love to be able to bring back our country into a great form of unity. Without a major event where people pull together, that's hard to do. But I would like to do it without that major event because usually that major event is not a good thing." https://t.co/3oBK9JXyvv — Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) January 30, 2018

It is the duty of all who did live through September 11th, 2001, and the day after, and the weeks and months that followed, to reject the saccharine, spurious narrative of everyone “coming together” in that time. There was no healing. There was precious little kindness, and that little delivered through insurmountable grief. But there was shock, and there was rage, in tandem giving rise to a jingoistic nightmare from which we have yet to awaken. The ghouls who “miss” 9/12 are not missing a spirit of resilience but an open wound that was soon infected with the worst of their beliefs. If that day had been what they claim it was, then something, anything, would have changed for the better. We are living through the proof that nothing ever did.