Photograph Source: The Bush White House – Public Domain

One of the most appalling conversations I have had this century took place in Greenwich Village’s Washington Square on September 11, 2001. The stench of the burning towers of the World Trade Center and their human and other content hung in the air, the bluish smoke a repulsively smelling fog. I had just found my friend whose workplace was mere blocks from the collapsing structure and we were sitting in the park drinking a bottle of wine. A small group of younger people in their twenties were talking among themselves when one turned to me and asked what I thought should be done about the perpetrators. I responded, saying that the individuals responsible should be found, arrested and tried. One of the young men in the group disagreed. Like most of his friends, he wanted war. On somebody. This comment was not particularly surprising; I mean we were in the US, where war is always suggested as a solution. I asked him what he thought should come next after his war. That was when a Black man among the group spoke up. His words were simple: Colonize them all. That’s how we can civilize them. I lost it. I told him it was the history of colonialism that had created the situation that ultimately provoked the perpetrators of the attacks to commit this heinous act and more colonialism would not change that. He repeated his statement. One of his friends asked him if he was descended from those who the US had enslaved. He nodded yes. I asked him if he understood that the system of US chattel slavery was a direct result of........

© CounterPunch