The 'Era of Terror'

On January 20, 2001 George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States.  Unbeknownst to him, this moment marked the beginning of a convoluted and tragic era. Bush's presidency would arguably be the most controversial in America's history; laden with unimaginable violence, media misrepresentations, and an overall sense of fear and confusion. 

On election night of 2000; Florida, a swing state, was announced to have elected Democratic candidate Al Gore for presidency on mainstream TV networks across America. Several moments later, counter information was presented by Fox News announcing that Bush had, in fact, taken the state of Florida by a mere one precent over Gore. Upon this information being released, other news stations apologized for the confusion and also changed the state of Florida to have favoured Bush. Controversially, the man who announced Bush's election in Florida at Fox News was none other than Bush's first cousin John Ellis! Even more suspicious is the fact that Bush's brother, Jeb Bush, was the Governor of Florida at the time of the election. Furthermore, the chairwoman of the Bush campaign, Katherine Harris, was the official vote tallier for the state. During the campaign, Harris had hired Data Base Technologies to remove voters from the voting list. At the time, this action was supported by the notion that the removed voters were convicted criminals. However, upon further investigation, it was found that the only commonality between these voters was that they were of Black or Hispanic descent and were likely to have voted against Bush. Essentially, things weren't going well and Bush hadn't even been sworn in yet!

Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris

Source: Associated Press

The outcry of independent media and Americans suspicious of the scandal was quickly dampened by the mainstream American Media and ALL members of the American Senate. The House of Representatives saw many (predominantly African-American) representatives beg the senate to consider investigating Bush's win in the state of Florida. With the signature of a single senator, their requests would be honoured. They received no signatures. 

Bush spent an alleged 42% of the first eight months of his reign as President on vacation. So lets fast forward through the details of his golf career, time spent on his farm in Texas, and pictures of him petting his beloved Scottish Terriers Barney and Miss Beazley; and begin on September 11, 2001. A day that shook the world to its core and opened up Pandora's box to the frightening reality of the consequences ignorance can have. As the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre fell that morning, so crumbled the principle of peace and humanitarianism which had been valued and upheld by the American people for decades. The World entered into the age of terror. Trust dissolved. Suddenly, our neighbors became suspects and our foreheads suddenly felt like target circles. 

September 30, 2001: Bush declares 'War on Terror'
Source: Win McNamee/Associated Press

With nowhere to turn and a longing for answers, Americans found refuge in media. The message they received was concise and confident: terrorists from the Middle East have come to attack the most powerful country on Earth. A sudden sense of “US and THEM” was established. A classic scenario of “good guys” versus “bad guys” was laid out before them. The only problem was that the “bad guys” suddenly encompassed entire countries thousands of miles away full of civilians who had never been seen or heard by many Americans. Suddenly, “terrorists” could be characterized by the clothing they wore or the religion they practiced. With a terror agenda of their own, the Bush administration pushed forward and spread their message of security threats across North America. With the help of corporately managed media, and the motivation of oil money; the U.S. proudly marched its way into a 21st century nightmare, also known as the “War on Terror”. 

“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists”

George W. Bush

September 20, 2001