@Duck and Decanter, Phoenix AZ
I think I have a hangover this morning. Oh, not from booze; it was the overwhelming coverage of 9/11’s tenth anniversary that did me in. I remember very clearly the images on TV ten years ago. I remember the pain, the fear, recoiling in revulsion. I remember asking: “How could this have happen not once but twice?"
I also remember being overwhelmed by the endless broadcasts. Most of all, I recall the anger I felt.
Before that I remember hearing that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. Of the two events I was much more fearful about the assassination. Maybe that was because I was in the military in 1963.
The endless reporting on neither event did anything to calm my fears or clear up the confusion I experienced. The confusion of the authorities and the news people was evident and was contagious. The endless mindless repetition of the few facts available didn’t allow my mind to process the information.
I am not sure that there has been any improvement since 1963 or 2001. JFK’s assassination has spawned endless conspiracy theories with constant reexaminations of the Zapruder film. I don’t know which I have seen more of, the jerky motion of the motorcade before and during the last seconds of JFK’s life or the slow motion impacts of the two aircraft into the towers and the resulting smoke plumes. I have seen almost as many images of people running from the outflow of dust of the resulting collapse.
Enough is enough.
Yes, I believe we should remember the events of 9/11 and have respect for the 3000 that died. Just so, we should remember the early demise of a charismatic president. Do we really need to have a week of run up to a twenty four hour day of wallowing in misery? I think not. You want to do something to memorialize to occasion? OK. Have a few speeches, leaving out the politics (thank you President Obama). Maybe invite all the first respondents and none of the dignitaries that wish to be seen attending. You want to do something really fitting? How about cancelling all flights as was done on that day? I remember how momentous having no aircraft in the skies was.
Yeah, I know, business as usual while all the rah, rah, is going on. I think that sober appreciation of all the mistakes the United States has made in world affairs and in legislation since would be of more benefit. The patriot act wasn’t enough; we had to invade Iraq because of our fear. Seemingly lost in the vision of the stricken towers is any discussion of why anyone would want to destroy them. Where are the questions about why people should hate capitalism enough to give their lives to destroy a symbol of it? Why not ask: “What could we do to change that hate (other than killing everyone that doesn’t believe western capitalism and the US is the Promised Land)?
Maybe it comes from some of our traditions as Western Christians. Most Christians look at the Crucifixion and see only the man Jesus hung on a cross by “the Jews”. Forgotten is the fact that the fact that crucifixion was a Roman punishment. The Jews that were involved were involved because they were sucking up to the foreign occupiers of Judah. The sadistic act itself was carried out by Roman Legionnaires. Roman soldiers were noted for their brutality when cruelty was the norm. So, what did Jesus teach to earn such a death? For one, he suggested that his followers carry a Roman soldier’s kit two miles instead of one. It was legal for a Roman soldier to compel a subject (Jew or otherwise) to go one mile but not two. If you carried his kit two the soldier could “have heaps of coals poured on his head”. No one else could compel you to do that, as far as I know.
When we focus on the public execution, we lose sight of the more important teachings that caused the religious leaders of the time to join forces with a “great Satan” against Jesus.
When we focus on the act of flying aircraft into buildings we lose sight of the reasons for such a desperate act.
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