Ten years after the horrific events of September 11, we all can remember exactly what we were doing that day when we heard the tragic news of the attacks. A friend sent me this email and I thought I would post it today. Someone else has something to say as well, and I will post that separately. Whatever your thoughts and memories are of that day, we can all agree that it changed our lives forever.
"I was
shopping when I heard about it. Then I went to an appointment with my dermatologist
and told him about it. Each time I returned to his office after that, he
reminisced with me that it was I who informed him of that event. The event was
so horrifying because it didn't happen in a brief moment, but was horror in slow
motion, as we sat watching. Because it happened so slowly, there was so much
video for us to watch over and over again, not being able to tear our eyes away
from the television. That made it sear into our minds, and replay and replay. It
wasn't a blur, but a nasty movie that we have been compelled to watch and
relive, with our eyes figuratively held open by devises, a la Clockwork Orange.
It would
have been so different if we had Gore as our president, wouldn't it. This
country would look so different today, I think. But what OBL sought to
accomplish, he accomplished with the unthoughtful assistance of the Bush/Cheney
administration, war, war and more war, a wild, animalistic thrashing out at all
of our perceived enemies. Lives and billions of dollars from our national
treasury, thrown into the ashes of those two towers.
Just the
other night, I saw myself sitting, having a drink in Windows on the World, a
lovely bar and restaurant at the top of one of the towers. It was nighttime,
and the whole of Manhattan glittered beneath me. I was there on a business trip
a couple of years before 9/11. I think about that now, remembering how spectacular
it was sitting there, like a deity. I also think about a trip I took to the
British Virgin Islands, a few months after 9/11, and sitting having lunch, and
got to talking to a young couple from NYC. The guy was an attorney, whose law
firm was located in the WTC. He was late to work that day, and missed the
horror, because his little daughter was going to preschool for the first time.
I remember
the first attack on the WTC. I was there shortly after, and stayed in a hotel a
block away. I saw all of the huge generators powering the building, as they
repaired the damage in the lower level due to the car bomb that exploded there.
I wondered then, as I stood by the tower, what would happen if it had toppled. I
never expected that it would sink into the ground, but imagined that it would
fall and crash into other buildings.
I look forward
to this day being over. I want to forget all of those images that still play in
my mind. I want it to be a footnote in my psyche, not a loop of horror. But the
real horror, the bitter pill that we have to swallow, is how much this event
harmed our country, and still harms it today. Ten years of war, a trillion or
more dollars, all of the lives lost, our fine soldiers, the innocent people in
Iraq and Afghanistan, the damage to our honor, the inability of our present
administration to extract us from this debilitating mess. I think about how
close we came to losing our democracy, with all of the jingoism and drum
beating. How this war so terrified certain people that has caused them to
accept and demand an authoritarian government.
My
brother was one of those people, and finally I said to him: they are a bunch of
nomads living amongst the rocks of a stone age society. They hit us, but they
will never be able to destroy us. He listened, and he repeated my phrase: they
won't be able to destroy us.....as if that thought never occurred to him. I
guess a good leader would have assured this country of that fact, instead of
instilling fear as a means to forward a terrible agenda.
I could
go on and on. I hope I don't feel the need to write about this day again. I
want it to go away. I want my country back."
3 comments:
Having a personal perspective of those moments and the years following, I read the writers comments with interest along with so many others.
Perhaps it is indicative of the great prosperity and blessings around us, which our generation has inherited, but we can afford peripheral reflective thoughts such a short time after such carnage, returned with a terrifying release of destructive power, over the last 10 years. Such great events have enveloped and come close to bringing some cultures to extinction. We are pundits today, in some regard due to our heightened security and familiar removal from
I can't leave this reflection without sadness that two difficult ideas seem to be woven into the author's view, which I feel tend to lessen the impact of these events.
First, OBL was not singularly responsible. Indeed when he was taken, he was pathetic. Rather, a thought process, and a concept was. (see http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes.html)
Second, where is the evidence, of any kind at all, that Al Gore is worthy of mention, in review?
Thanks for reading.
I think it is good to have dialog when an important topic is viewed from different perspectives. I appreciate and thank you for your comments, Karson.
I also thank the writer for giving me permission to post this...it was not intentionally written as an essay, but as an email sharing from the heart from one person to another. It was at my request that this was published for all to read.
The very last thing I would want would be to become combative over these highly sensitive issues. I apologize for any appearance of this intent. Its a difficult time for this nation, and more than anything, I desire to see healing, at the cost of very considerable compromise, even of some ideals we might hold individually precious. Yet, collectively we have a nation with a very great heart, and a compassionate nation, and we must work together to preserve these characteristics, individually in our relationships and speech and in principle. I apologize again, and admit to sharing much of the feeling of the original author if this article.
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