Two decades ago, the numbers 9-1-1 meant something altogether different than what we think of today. In the old days, 9-1-1 was the number to call on the telephone in an emergency. In most places in the US today, those three numbers remain the ones to dial if you need an ambulance or you want to report a fire or a crime. So, in this way, nothing has changed.
But we all know, that if the last two numbers are read as one, 9-11 takes on a more ominous meaning. It encompasses the former meaning and adds a multiplicity of layers.
When I think back to my reaction to the events that transpired 9 years ago, it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, I was anguished beyond belief. I sat in front my television screen in tears. I couldn't stop crying at the abject horror being played out in front of my eyes.
I thought of all those innocent victims -- people with good qualities and bad -- whose lives were snuffed out in an instant. I thought of the utter misery their living loved ones would have to endure in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
I thought of the brave first responders who gave their lives trying to save others as well as those who would live with the nightmares for the rest of their days.
Part of me was outraged, not at the men who flew the planes into buildings, but at US foreign policy. I thought of Malcolm X's oft quoted statement, "The chickens have come home to roost." Our nation has a history of meting out self-righteous violence, oppression and subjugation; it was amazing that some nation or group hadn't repaid us in spades before.
Most of all, this one event crystallized a notion that had been circulating in my mind for some time: religion is a scourge on the planet. Religion, more than anything else, was the cause of this tragedy. Christian and Jewish zealots had been inflicting great harm on Muslim/Arab countries for generations. Now Muslim zealots were slaughtering thousands of innocents as a form of retaliation!
All this to defend a word and a set of beliefs about the unknowable mystery!
Throughout the history of humankind, more people have been killed, maimed, raped, injured, and emotionally destroyed arguing about something that NONE of us knows the answer to. Deluded by the idea that "our truth" is better than "your truth", we are destroying ourselves.
For me, the events of 9/11/01 clearly illustrate that, by and large, our species is patently insane.
But we all know, that if the last two numbers are read as one, 9-11 takes on a more ominous meaning. It encompasses the former meaning and adds a multiplicity of layers.
When I think back to my reaction to the events that transpired 9 years ago, it was a mixed bag. On the one hand, I was anguished beyond belief. I sat in front my television screen in tears. I couldn't stop crying at the abject horror being played out in front of my eyes.
I thought of all those innocent victims -- people with good qualities and bad -- whose lives were snuffed out in an instant. I thought of the utter misery their living loved ones would have to endure in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
I thought of the brave first responders who gave their lives trying to save others as well as those who would live with the nightmares for the rest of their days.
Part of me was outraged, not at the men who flew the planes into buildings, but at US foreign policy. I thought of Malcolm X's oft quoted statement, "The chickens have come home to roost." Our nation has a history of meting out self-righteous violence, oppression and subjugation; it was amazing that some nation or group hadn't repaid us in spades before.
Most of all, this one event crystallized a notion that had been circulating in my mind for some time: religion is a scourge on the planet. Religion, more than anything else, was the cause of this tragedy. Christian and Jewish zealots had been inflicting great harm on Muslim/Arab countries for generations. Now Muslim zealots were slaughtering thousands of innocents as a form of retaliation!
All this to defend a word and a set of beliefs about the unknowable mystery!
Throughout the history of humankind, more people have been killed, maimed, raped, injured, and emotionally destroyed arguing about something that NONE of us knows the answer to. Deluded by the idea that "our truth" is better than "your truth", we are destroying ourselves.
For me, the events of 9/11/01 clearly illustrate that, by and large, our species is patently insane.
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