This is it. I returning from a hiatus that I have taken for reasons under my control. I'm not exactly sure why, but it happened. Perhaps it was because the world has become too evil and selfish in the interium. Perhaps it's because I have become too evil and selfish since I left. Maybe I lost the passion. Whatever I might have lost, it took nothing but a week of news and publicity to interrupt my slumber. Like most others across this country and the world, I could hardly help not to realize that this week was the 10th anniversary of the death of Tupac Shakur and I guess I'd have to mention, more notably the fif anniversary of the attacks upon the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. The reactions over this marking have contrasted greatly across the spectrum of humanity who knows of the occasion. Some are still sheding tears. Others marked this anniversary by intrrupting some fluffy prime-time viewing to throw their face even further down our throats as if we haven't had enough of him already. And others still smile at the thought of it. I, however, find myself on a different side of the pendilum than many others. This anniversary means something totally different to me than most and as much as I'd like to say it started at a time just under six years, it actually began over 16 years ago...
9 and
11.
9, 11.
Two numbers that are separated by another. As separate as they are, these two numbers are unfortunately linked in the minds of millions for greater signifigances than either would have alone.
9/11. It's now just a roll of the tongue. as loosely as it is spoken it can be used as sharply, automatically causing a twinge in the reality that so many have become resign to. It didn't take long after the anniversary that cries for the day were being announced to signify something heightened and hyped above what normally stood for. Before
9/11, 9/11 was a day. What has happened? How did we come to this?
Many will think back to before it happened and dare to rationalize and capitalize from a time less ordinary. There were several events that took place leading up to the anniversary that puts stock in the beliefs that it carries a signifigance we should behold. Without going through each and every detail, these events included the attack of the USS Cole, attacks on US embassies in Africa, attack on the Khobar Towers, a number of other bombings that were the aftershocks of the original attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. I hear day in and day out of others marking this date as a time where a war began, a undeclared and ignored war. We are lead to belive by some that we have been at war since this time, but because of the actions of a single man named William Clinton we ignored this war, as the enemy measured us and eventually attacked us over and over and instead of fighting back, we had a president who was concerned about lying to the people. Well, before people start to blame Bill Clinton for the signifigent number of problems on his plate, do not ignore the other side of the story. He might have had an ignorance, but what of the ignorance of those concentrating on his ignorance? Are they blameless? We did not fight a War on Terror not because Bill Clinton refused to recognize the war. Nobody recongized the war. Those who might have were not listened to by anyone, from top to bottom.
However, as much as people want to point a finger at Clinton and the bombing of the Twin Towers 13 years ago, our problems did not simply reaveal itself on a chilly afternoon. Those wishing to bring a fight to America did not come to a conclusion "Oh, I know, let's kill Americans. That seems like a good idea." No, they didn't do that. We, human beings are beings of rationale and reason and everyone has them. Like them, hate them, fear them or dismiss them, those who harm our nation and have reasons not begotten of thin air. As I mentioned it was 16 years ago. It was 16 years ago that the conflict evolved. It was 16 years ago enemies were created. It was 16 years ago that brought forth the changing face of American society. It was 16 years ago that President George Bush declared that the United States would use force to remove an invading Iraq army from Kuwait. And it was on
9/11. No more than a month earlier the United States had solidified a deal with Saudia Arabia a nation who feared the invading Iraqi army. At this time, as Saudia Arabia turned to the United States, it turned it's back on one of it's own, defying his dedication and trust. It was this embarrassment that directed his attention from one superpower to a new enemy, the last superpower. This shame he felt, it wasn't taken lightly. It wasn't warmly received and what made it worse was the idea that we stayed and continued to stay. How would you feel if someone with an opposing lifestyle and ideology was given free will to take residence in your house, sleep in your bed, beat your children and fuck your spouse. It probably won't make you feel too happy would it?
We need a greater perspective than what we desperately cling to now.
But by all means, twist my message if it makes you feel better. I know exactly what I'm saying and if you don't you certainly won't be able to grasp the rest of the message. No I am not siding with Osama Bin Laden. No I do not agree with his methods. No I am not shifting or placing blame on anyone who does not deserve it. The facts are in the history and it speaks for itself. You may want to think they started it by taking the fight to us in 1993, but who's to say we didn't start it by taking the fight to them in 2001? Can you honestly limit your judgment to something that essentially amounts to "Well he started it", an argument that would apply to actions of one side? Well, it takes two to tango. You can want to think all you want that these individuals cannot grasp human precepts like logic and reason, but they do. They feel pain, fear, and violation just as we felt on
9/11. The only thing is they felt it from us long before we felt it from them. It was on August 7, 1990, United States troops entered Saudia Arabia, which marked the beginning of Operation: Desert Shield. In order to protect our economic prinicple of free trade among all nations and in a attempt to safe guard an ally, we did not know at the same time we were spurning the pride of a movement that would come back to haunt us
16 Years Later... Tragically, on
9/11.
9/11There's so much more to this that escapes the mental jungle that we ascribe to. It's an unfortunate occurance that someone now says
9/11 and automatically conjures up a sword to which is to hurt us or offend others. What is now pierced by this edge is the past and replaced by it is that in the scheme of things should not be the mantle that encompasses the day. Will we no longer hold in mind the declaration given by our former president to Iraq 16 years earlier? Should we forget some resemblance of lasting peace between in the Middle East with Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel being established? Do we let go of the fact that the Pentagon one of the objects of destruction had started construction on the same day? Do we not remember one of the originators of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, adopted his methodology on this day? Should we overlook even more jovial sporting anniversaries like the beginning of the "Curse of the Bambino" and Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb's Major League base hit record? Why should history be lost to one single day?
And the irony of such a rememberance is even more curious. We remember
9/11, but we don't remember 10/12? We remember
9/11, but the reference of 2/26 is lost? We remember
9/11, but 12/7 does not carry the same impact.
9/11 carries a higher signifgence with others, but at the mentioning of 4/4, you're clueless. While
9/11 lives on, days like 11/23, 5/8, 9/6, and 5/17 are just another day lost in history. Should we remember the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon and forget the attack of the USS Cole? Should we remmeber this attack, but the previous one in 1993 be less remarkable? Should this anniversary carry a higher signifigence than the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.? What about the assassination of John Kennedy, Victory in Europe in World War II, the fall of the first atomic bomb and the decision of Brown vs the Board of Education? Why not mark these days with a simple sharpe set of numbers too?
Goddamn, what happen on September 11th, 2001 was pretty fucking horrible, but there has been some horrible shit going on in the world. Nearly 2,000 people were wiped out last August in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, I don't remember the president interrupting prime-time television to show how much he cared about the loss of life less than a year removed from the worst natural disaster in US history. Whether people want to like it or not, we suffer from a loss of perspective. It's the same loss of perspective that clouds our minds to think a human being would not feel violated, despite whatever our intentions were. That attack was bad. It was ugly. It hurt. Unfortunately we are hurt by many more things. There are events on other days that hurt me much more than what happened on that single day. And because of this, I may stand alone on my own, but it's my preference not to use such a reference of
9/11 because it does nothing but dampen the signifigance of our history. It is long, it is majectic and it is also tragic. I cannot devalue what we've been through, what I lived by holding in regard a reference to a day. I just hope that some day down the line, maybe another 16 years later, we regain our perspective.
