Hey, if you weren’t in NY on 9/11... you probably remember it a little differently than we do.

We appreciated all the support and love, but y’all turned it into something else really, really quick. (1/x)

I could go on and on about the day itself, but listen: It wasn’t long afterwards when the country started telling New Yorkers how to show proper respect for the day.

So let me flash forward 17 months. Ground Zero was still literally a smoldering crater...

I emerged from the subway in midtown Manhattan into a crowd of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. One of the biggest protests in history. They were surrounding a hotel that President Bush was in.

It was peaceful, but angry. Lots of handwritten posters:

“NOT IN OUR NAME”

There was still time to stop. To NOT invade Iraq. New Yorkers knew it was bullshit, that this was wrong, and it felt especially personal because 9/11 was essentially the entire rationale for the upcoming war.

We were being used, and we knew it.

You can still read the public opinion polls. Outside of New York, support for invading Iraq was running high. Inside... not so much.

The protests were ignored. The invasion happened. Hundreds of thousands of people died.

In our name.

I you wanted to honor the heroes of 9/11, that was your chance. You blew it.

You put your arms around us in a show of unity, then used that grip to drag us off a cliff.

I’m being a little hyperbolic, of course. But it definitely felt like that.

Anyway, 19 years later, people who weren’t there are still puffing our their cheeks and pontificating about what the day means.

I don’t care if you’re one of those Building 7 conspiracy fuckheads who never stood near Building 7, or one of those 7th-inning stretch patriots who wasn’t there to see the REAL WTC flag unfurled during the World Series.

It’s still exploitation, even if it makes you feel feels.

I’m sure the day is genuinely meaningful for you too. I get that it was a national trauma too. That’s fine.

But my advice is that the right way to honor the day, for most people, is to listen more and talk less. And if you DO need to talk, fine, but

Not in our name.