If you're expecting the usual platitudes, recriminations, vituperation, invective...you'd better move on.
This is not going to be bitterly outraged anger against the infidels who committed such sacrilege against a defenseless and unprepared benevolent nation. Nor will it be a bitterly impassioned review of the multitudinous and egregious sins of the US against poor and unsuspecting countries. It will certainly not be a free-ranging condemnation of anything and everything American, or of American xenophobia, or other such excoriations. And it will definitely not be a maudlin and sentimental memorial to the thousands of undeserving innocents who died at the hands of the rabid and pitiless bastards of an alien and murderous religion.
This is a marker, plain and simple.
It marks an important date in the history of humanity. Not just Christian or Muslim humanity. Not just American or non-American humanity. ALL humanity. People who felt their cause was just, and people who felt the weight of that justice. People who embraced violence as a means of protest and retaliation, and people who abhorred violence as a means of solving the problems being protested. People who loved and hated - each other, and most others. People who were lost, but thought they had found the answer. People who were angry, alone, frightened, desperate.
This is a marker, plain and simple.
What happened nine years ago on this date has marked us all - the lovers and haters of America, the lovers and haters of Iraq. It has marked all the rest of us, too. Those who try to steer a middle course between rabid nationalism and rabid imperialism, between an irrational fear of the infidels and an irrational hatred of the oppressors.
What you choose to do with the mark that remains will say a lot about you as an individual. Don't assume that because you weren't there, or weren't touched personally, or have no love for the US, or no love for Iraq, or are a peace-nik, or whatever your reasons for distance may be, that you are unmarked. Every global event marks us all, because we all participate in the event called being human. Your anger is a sign of that mark, no matter who you're angry with. So is your sorrow. So is your glee.
How will you "celebrate" your humanity on this date that has marked you?
Welcome to September 11, 2010!
23 comments:
wow, awesome! i've already shed some tears. believe i saw the light from ground zero tonight. have my little candle lit on my porch hoping that it's light along with my prayer reaches the heavens. i mourn the lost. i celebrate the heroes... God bless us all.
I lost my blood 9 yrs ago.......and went on to see my uncle and aunt never recover from the impact.....I mourn the many.........I celebrate their memories..........rejoice in the new generations to come to hopefully understand and will not be torn by anger or bitterness........we burn a candle for peace.......I will never believe in hate..........it will not bring my blood back...........An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.............burning a Kuran does not do anything but cause and stir hate.......we are our brothers's keepers.......we will be judged by our actions and words.........I try to weigh mine carefully....
what more can we do...........
we will be celebrating with friends and living the life and liberties that others tried to take; 1/2 day at block party with neighbors, family and friends and the other 1/2 rocking, screaming and kicking it at punk rock concert with friends.
it's a disgrace that people are planning any kind of "political" actions. we all have our opinions, save them for another day. this should be a day of remembrance for the innocent lives lost and the heroes that gave their all.
Amen to that.....enough hate and blood have been split................enough hate..............enough!
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."
John Donne (1572-1631)
Meditation 17
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
Exactly so.
I'll join anyone who preaches that message, without rancour, creed, relegion or any other spin.
Enough of the hate, from where ever it comes. Let's start today and every day from now on with that thought.
No more hate.
Thinking often about the intentions of Terry Jones and the actions of those who burn people in effigy.
I'll mark the occasion by taking a trip to Bizarro World.
Free tickets are available here
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/09/08/when-satire-becomes-reality/
"...the sheer force of the explosion as those planes hit the World Trade Center and slammed into the Pentagon forced us into an alternate dimension where up is down, news is entertainment, and a rational critique of U.S. foreign policy is considered sheer amusement. Here in Bizarro World, everything is upended: not only our morals, but our grasp of reality, and, indeed, the concept of reality itself."
As long as you're not accusing me of this, Bull, all is well!
Justin Raimondo is just the King of Snark.
That was a funny article! Or maybe it's just me! I'm in an odd mood today...
One hell of a lovely blog.
By trying to make a small difference to someones day...hugs & butterfly kisses xxx
Babs, thank you, and Amen!
Kata, I wish you peace, love! *hugs*
Thank you, Sue, for that timely reminder! Donne surely knew whereof he preached!
"No more hate." Amen, Jim!
We can only be wise for ourselves, eh, Monique?
Awww! Thank you, sweetie! *hugs* I say it as I see it!
And we cannot ask any more of anyone, Saffy! *hugs*
I absolutely love John Donne and this piece.
T...this is a wonderful blog. Things like this touch us all even if we are not directly involved. You're so right.
Thanks, Chey! If only we humans would get it through our thick skulls that we are NOT isolated and untouchable, that we ARE vulnerable, as vulnerable as those we prey upon!
My God thats strong stuff.......You have just written one of your best Blogs Kit.....
Thank You...
x
Thank YOU, Frankie! :)
love your view.. i loved it when you wrote about veterans day and i appreciate it now...
Thanks, Tori! I don't remember what I wrote for Veterans Day...now I'll have to go see! :)
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