9/11. Will it ever be over? I think not, and that’s a good thing. It’s been a couple of months, we sould be adjusting, right?
No
NO
I can’t sleep tonight. I come out here to while away time, hoping to sleep soon. My personal life has taken a huge leap towards fantastic. Things are great. I click on a bookmark someone had sent me shortly after the attack. It was a computer graphic and sound thing that I am sure we have all seen before. You would think that with time, it would become commonplace. It hasn’t. It CAN’T. America is about inclusion, everyone belongs here. We, and I, take pride in that. It is who and what we are. It’s the only thing we have that seperates the U.S. from the rest of the world. We have often times badly espoused the doctrine of equality for all. It took us almost 100 years to recognise that black folks were just that, folks, and another 100 before we started to live it. We didn’t allow women to vote until 1919. We are flawed, and greedy, and selfish, and often bad. And yet…
And yet…
And yet…
America still works. It works better than anything else I can think of. We’re not the ultimate, but we’re the best that has come along yet.
On September 11, 2001, a meglomaniac attacked us. He reaped a good harvest, about 6,000 Americans. He couched it in terms of what he called his religion, but anyone who has taken the time to read the Koran realizes that it is not. He killed innocents for his own power. We have responded, and have his organization on the ropes. They are going to go down, it’s only a question of time. I wish for Osama before me, knowing that I would hurt and kill him, again and again and again. This disturbes me, because I am not a revengeful man. What he has done is SO horrible, that it deserves no less. I am willing to sell who I am for a chance to hurt him. Does that make me a bad man? Prolly, but my instinct is to say it makes me an American. And we got something you never will. Tolerance. And Freedom.
And yet still, I hate. I can live with that.
I also respect your feelings Dave, and have huge sympathy for all those bereaved.
I know it is important to be patriotic, especially at a time like this, but phrases like “we’re the best that has come along yet” are actually what has led to so much anti-American/Western feeling in the first place.
I am Western, and only realised this when I moved to the Middle East a few months ago.
I recognise that you have been very self-deprecatory in your post. But the main thing I find that people here resent is what they perceive as Western “arrogance” - it might not be, but that’s how they see it.
Also phrases like: “He reaped a good harvest, about 6,000 Americans.” Please remember that other nationalities died that day, as well as innocent Arabs and Muslims. I don’t think your sentiment makes you American, I think it makes you human.
But I do totally agree with your anger and frustation about the horrific actions of Bin Laden/Al Qaeda. And most people in this region - including Arabs and Muslims - feel the same. I desperately hope he is soon brought to justice, for the sake of all the victims, their friends and families.
As well as all those affected - redundant airline employees, insurance workers, etc.
I’ve said it before: We have no punishment to fit this crime. We will have to be content with merely eradicating the criminals responsible. Killing Osama again and again, even if it was possible, would be pointless.
The initial shock following the attack was soon replaced by rage, and now that too, is being replaced by a sense of purpose. And I think that’s good.
We have to put our anger aside, do what is necessary and remind ourselves that the act was big, but the men responsible for this crime are small.
Much as I respect your feelings, Dave, this really should be in the Pit.
[nitpick in the name of combatting ignorance]
The current estimate of the 9/11 death toll stands at 3835. The authorities initially thought it was a lot higher, but fortunately it’s not.
[/nitpick]