[Also posted here: http://911speakout.org/wp-content/uploads/911-so-what.pdf ]

The evidence that we were lied to about 9/11 is straightforward and blatant. It has been researched, verified, and laid on the table for all to see. It is really not hard to convince most honest, open minded people who are not in denial, if you focus on the evidence. But where can they go from there? They can sign a petition, sure, but that is not enough.

The other side of the coin is another big question: what do we have to do to "win" on 9/11? Is it a matter of convincing a large number of people, or certain key people, or winning court battles, or politically maneuvering to bring pressure on the government to open a new investigation? All of these are worthy goals, but how likely is it, really, that a new investigation would not be just another whitewash, or that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld will ever go to prison or flee to Paraguay? The larger question is, would such a victory really bring resolution to 9/11? I don't think so.

9/11 did not just happen. 9/11 was a premeditated shock and awe event that was instrumental in a larger plan. It allowed the administration to immobilize the population through fear and manipulate their outrage displaced toward the designated enemy. 9/11 provided cover for a protracted attack on our democratic values and an orgy of outrageous national behavior that defined the entire Bush administration, much of which continues today. 9/11 brought us the fiction of "preemptive" wars as a fig leaf for naked military aggression, the fiction of "illegal enemy combatants," to pretend the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and the fiction of "enhanced interrogation" as though that were any different from torture pure and simple. It brought us routine drone assassinations, the expansion of secrecy, the unleashing of the NSA to conduct universal surveillance, the destruction of nearly every one of our civil liberties, attacks on journalism and the murder of journalists, paranoid fear of immigrants in general and Arabs in particular, and the demonization of Islam as a uniquely violent religion. This list is far from complete.

The 9/11 Truth Movement has uncovered overwhelming evidence that the destruction of the World Trade Center was a crime that required long-term inside access to the buildings, access to military-grade demolition materials, and the ability to coordinate the demolitions with the hijacker scenario, the elaborately staged fumbling of what should have been routine interceptions, and a massive cover-up that began on the day of 9/11. Uncovering the evidence for all this has been a remarkable achievement of the 9/11 Truth Movement, but to address 9/11 fully, we must look beyond the mere fact of government involvement and look at the crimes against democracy that were begun on that day.

This brings us back to the original question. Once people become conscious of the fact that 9/11 was a lie, how can they channel their response? Their essential response must be to demand our democracy back. This can take a thousand forms. We must call for an end to the war on terror, which is in reality an endless reign of terror. We must call for the end of drone assassinations. We must work to end the death-grip of the military industrial complex on our society. We must work to end the dominance of the fossil fuel industry over our government. We must work to end economic polarization of the nation and the influence of money on politics. All of these, and many more areas of potential activism, are responses to the larger crimes against democracy that were launched on 9/11. All of these can be energized by people who have become conscious of the truth of 9/11. Consciousness of the truth, is empowering. It changes who we are and how we understand and interact with the world. As we raise consciousness of the truth we incrementally change the social and political landscape. That is why we must continue to speak out.