Reinterpreting September 11th

Throughout history, September 11th has been marked by events that have negatively impacted humanity's journey on Earth. It was on September 11th, in 2001, that the Twin Towers in New York were attacked. Ironically, this was the same day that, sixty years earlier, the Pentagon, the ultimate symbol of the war culture spread worldwide by US governments, began to be built. It was also on September 11th, in 1973, that the Chilean military carried out the coup that assassinated the democratically elected President Salvador Allende.

For us, Brazilians, September 11th will never be the same again. Unlike the negative examples, from now on we have a reason to celebrate this date. How about declaring it the Day of Democratic Defense? Alongside October 25th – when we celebrate Democracy in memory of journalist Wladimir Herzog, murdered by the Brazilian military dictatorship – September 11th should be remembered for what it represented: the condemnation of the actors who attempted to impose a coup against the Republic and who, on January 25th, 2023, showed their most public face.

It is not only the conviction of Jair Bolsonaro that should be remembered. Leader of the criminal coup organization, according to the Supreme Federal Court, sentenced to 27 years in prison. Nor is it the more than a century of imprisonment imposed on the other members of the hard core of the coup attempt, civilians and military personnel. What should be highlighted is that, for the first time in our history, the perpetrators of an attempted coup against the Democratic Rule of Law were held accountable and duly punished.

September 11th should be included in our nation's civic calendar – yes, the green and yellow one, not the blue, red, and white one, as some treacherous criminals might wish. It should be taught in schools as the culmination of a victorious resistance, when our democratic institutions showed their strength against those who believed it was possible to bring an entire nation to its knees in the name of their personal projects of power – economic and political.

We must lend to this date the grandeur it carries from today onwards (I write on the night of September 11, 2025). A day that ceases to be merely a symbol of world tragedies and becomes, for us, a milestone of victory: the victory of our young democracy.

Democracy won. And you, you lost, fool!