2006-09-11: join at least 43 other 43Ters in posting reflections on the anniversary this coming Monday

Here is a photomosaic of all but 92 of the people who lost their lives on Sept. 11. It’s a hard thing to look at, but I think it’s important for them to be remembered regardless of how it makes us feel. We have the option of turning away if it’s too painful to see, but the families & friends of the victims don’t. They will struggle with their losses forever, and we need to make sure we don’t forget that.

I have to add one thing. I was just watching an interview on TV, and the guy made a very insightful point. A lot of people (including myself) feel that our freedom and constitutional rights are more important than total security. This guy stated that as important as our rights are, we have to remember that 3000 people were denied their right to live that day. Now i’m a little torn… I guess there is some rationality behind his philosophy: That as a nation, we may have to be flexible if we want to protect ourselves and others from future attacks.

Someday when i’m old and feeble, i’ll look back and take note of the defining moments of my life. Along with my first car, my college graduation, my wedding, my children, all the good memories and all the bad, i’ll remember the events of September 11th as one of the most significant. I’ve always been amazed by the fact that people remember President Kennedy’s assassination so vividly, but I never understood why. Now I do.

To this day I can still visualize the entire room as it was when I turned on the TV and realized we were under attack. I had class that morning, so naturally I was asleep on the couch when a friend called to find out where I was. He didn’t say why, but very seriously stated that I better turn on the TV. It was about 9am when I turned on the news, and before I even had a chance to interpret what I was seeing, I watched as the second plane hit the south tower…

From that point forward my life was basically a blur. I was already going through a lot of personal stuff, and the attack really sent me into a downward spiral. I was too shocked to really give the whole event much thought, until I found out about the people who were forced to jump from the upper floors. My mom has a friend who works in an office facing the trade center, and the story she tells is too intense for me to even repeat. It wasn’t only the destruction of a symbol; it was the end of our way of life. The whole world seemed just a little less secure; a little less friendly. As I said, I was dealing with my own issues at the time, which paled in comparison with what was going on, but that day definitely made it a lot harder to hope for the best… about anything.

In retrospect, what bothers me isn’t so much thinking about that day as much as what has happened since. There is one thing above all that I can’t understand. Families of the victims and casualties of the 9/11 attacks received ‘compensation’ from the government for healthcare, pain & suffering. Apparently they also provide funds to some families of rescue workers and others who worked on the site. There’s a guy who lives near me who went up to NYC to help with the cleanup. He died recently from respiratory failure at the age of 34 as a direct result of Mercury poisoning from all the broken fluorescent light bulbs in the rubble. Unfortunately his family isn’t eligible for any federal aid because they live in New Jersey instead of New York. What the hell is that… seriously.

In addition, our government has now assumed absolute power, circumventing the system of checks & balances outlined in our Constitution. Lies, corruption, secret prisons, torture, racism, racial profiling, illegal phone-taps, and a host of other injustices have all occurred in the name of “national security”. All of these security measures are being taken to prevent another 9/11, when in fact there’s no way to guarantee protection. That’s going to be a risk as long as there are still starving, miserable, bitter people in the world; and right now there are plenty.

The U.S. government has been getting involved in sticky situations around the world for the past century, but here in America we’ve never had to suffer the consequences. The people who attacked on that day live in a world without freedom, without meaning, in constant fear for their lives and the lives of their families. The worst part is that many of these conditions are directly or indirectly related to US government policy. I’m not trying to excuse their actions at all; in fact I wouldn’t hesitate for a second take any one of those guys out if I knew it would save lives. Unfortunately, no matter how many times we question their motives, the motives are still going to be there at the end of the day. And no matter how many militant Arabs we kill, there will always be more to replace them.

That’s about as tolerant as I can be on that subject, but in any case it’s obvious to me that we’re going to have to do a whole lot more than check people’s shoes in the airport to prevent another attack. Over the course of history, we as a country have used way too many Band-Aids. This is a deep wound that we’re dealing with here and it’s going to take a lot of diplomacy, ingenuity, and pr work to ever achieve any real sense of security without giving up our freedom.

“Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither”
-Ben Franklin