nine-eleven
On this day, five years ago, one of the worst and most tragic things I’ve ever witnessed happened: this country was attacked in New York City, NY, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, PA. In each place, sacred ground has become an everyday part of this generation’s life. Words can’t quite describe how I feel even to this day, about that horrid day.
The footage that continues to run on the screens today continues to bring tears to my eyes. I don’t know if I will ever be able to completely get over this event. I had no family lost in that day, but at the same time, I felt like a member of my own family had been taken from me. And the same feeling was multiplied by each person that died that day. Maybe that is why this day and 9/11 is such a sensitive topic. It’s such a topic that I still don’t know that I agree with movies already being made about the event. It seems like it was yesterday… yet it was five years ago.
And my question to our country is: how have the last five years changed us?
Today, I felt fear for the first time as a new DC resident. On the Metro, there is nothing to keep someone from doing the same thing that was done on 9/11 here, or like the subway bombings in London. I wondered as each person got on if they were moved by this day, and if it meant anything to them. I wondered if each person truly valued the freedom that we enjoy.
Ironically enough, tonight President Bush spoke of freedom as the strongest artillery that we hold as Americans. But, I wonder of this freedom at times. How can we be free when we are subject to warrantless wiretappings and our library records can be used against us by checking out flagged books. Do we really have freedom when we can’t even defend our own borders because our soldiers are fighting for the freedom of people in another country that didn’t deserve our divisive war.
Bush also said Osama Bin Laden has called this war, the United States in Iraq, World War III. Has the president ever considered the possibility that we began that great world war? Bush labeled him as a threat tonight, and did not link him to 9/11. Yet, Osama Bin Laden still roams unclaimed and vigilant to destroy this country. And why? He hates America because we offered help to the Middle East’s economy in the 1980s, and they chose us instead of internal and common links. He hates America because since the end of World War II, this nation has been consistently adamant about making a democracy out of those who are unlike us.
But, shouldn’t 9/11 show us that maybe, just maybe, we aren’t the ones who are always right, or always aware, or always the strongest? I grieve those who lost their lives on that day, and for the soldiers lost in unnecessary wars, and for all of their families. However, how much longer will this administration cause us to grieve for lost lives, while the blood is possibly on their hands?
9/11 isn’t about hating those who are unlike us, or changing those who are different. People from all nations and races were killed in 9/11, some of which are brothers and kindred of those who caused the destruction. Our resilience is not to put down others and triumph over them. As a nation, our sense of resolve should be toward unity and peace, and not equal hatred… that makes us no better than the terrorists.
So, on this day, I wonder… Will we feel justice when those who planned and killed so many on 9/11 are captured or killed? Or will we continue to seek out those who are unlike us and try to recreate them?
To me, the simplest answer is peace. What better way to tell the world that we stand for freedom and integrity. As Hillary Clinton said today, we have to put our money where our risks are… How about investing into our poverty-stricken areas and into our social security system? How about investing into our students and stop hiking rates for loans and put a cap on tuition for public education? Maybe then, we’ll grow Americans who desire peace and seek out injustice. Only then will we be able to fully put our clout behind the democracy we brag so much about. And maybe then, democracy will be sought by nations on their own initiative, and not by our force. That, my friend, is the concept of true world peace.
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