*sigh*
9-11. One year ago I was hiking from the middle of Washington DC to Falls Church amidst countless panicked people. I saw every human emotion possible. I saw a young 20 something girl crying, wondering which building might be the next target. I saw a 30 year old man describing the details of that day to his cell phone. I saw a 70 year old man laughing to his 70 year old friend, saying "So they're trying to blow us up, eh?" I saw the United States' military headquarters smoldering from the Arlington Memorial Bridge.
Now, I'm not religious, but I am spiritual. I believe that any of you out there that believe in something are equally right. I also figure that if you hear a divine force telling you to kill people, its not your god. Its that other one you believe in, that guy with the horns.
We need to remember that that goes both ways. 9-11 has proven two things, we are vulnerable and there are people who hate us a lot. Whether those people are right or wrong for hating us, we need to keep sight of who our friends are.
Our enemy is a select few who are filled with hate. If we go off into the world, killing everything between them and us, we're only going to seed more hate to people who already don't like us very much. The more people learn to hate us, the stronger our enemies will become.
If we want to be safe, we need to put down the guns, and accept the support of our friends. We need to get closer to our international community - a community who one year ago offered its unconditional support. Now we are losing that support by going to war that no one else wants. We are losing the only thing that can truly keep us safe.
Its one of the oldest clichés in the book, but we're acting no better then them. Please folks, we can't win this war by playing by their rules. We're better then that. We're smarter, and we're stronger. By whatever god you believe in, lets prove it.
It's September 11th. Today marks a one-year anniversary. Of what, I feel I don't need to say.
Since it seems appropriate, I'd like to offer my own first anniversary reflection on what I've seen the human spirit do.
On that day, the human race reaffirmed its status being the only creature on this planet that can rationalize and take joy in killing its own kind. 19 homo sapiens took it upon themselves to take 4 planes laden with fuel and people and target them at buildings containing many people. They didn't want property damage, they didn't want to merely scare the pants off people. They wanted to kill. And they wanted to do it in the most brutal, horrifying and flat out atrocious manner possible. We look at the images, see hell on earth in those buildings and see what the human spirit is capable of. Hurrah for the human race.
On the other side of the coin, in the 36 hours after the morning of the 11th, we have also seen how the human joins the rest of the animal kingdom with its strong will to survive. 18 people were pulled from the wreckage of the WTC alive. And even after that, across the country we hear stories about how people are not letting their lives grind to a halt after seeing what happened, in person or on TV. We hear about the surviving wives who've given birth since Sept 11th '01. People have found ways to cope, adapt and move on, through religion, higher tolerance towards people, family. Personally, I've noticed people are a little bit friendlier in face to face situations. If not friendlier, then less surly. The ability to survive crises is strong in humans and can lead to great things. Again, Hurrah for the human race!
To all the firemen, policemen and EMTs...
To all the bystanders who rushed forward to help...
To all who could lend a supporting hand, shoulder, dollar, word or moment...
To the passengers of the Pennsylvania plane...
To the stewardesses who brought down Reid the "Shoe-Bomber"...
To anyone who's stopped a human from taking the lives of many others...
This one gives all of you a long hearty applause of congratulations. The human race could do with more of you.
Like a human, we can have the desire and will to kill other men. Like the meerkat, we can come together and bond tight when attacked or threatened. Like the bison, we can form a wall of protection (physical, spiritual or mental) and defend overselves. And finally, like the elephant, we must never forget.
Well today is September 11th 2002 one year after the travesty that makes this date stick out like a sore thumb happened and I think that it is a terrible thing that happened to us.
On this day I was woken up by the terrible feeling of loss and I watched the whole thing unveil it self on the tv feeling powerless to do anything and I was highly angry at those who did this to us, but letting the anger consume is bad because all i heard that day was, "Stupid towel heads, I (not me) hope that our force reflects what they did to us ten fold" and I could not see that happening because we are not about destruction of all of civilization, but I think we shoud be more careful now.
Now I will rant a little bit about what other terrible things that have happened since 9-11 1)Our goverment's reaction to this since they were not ready for this was to half ass overparenting of everybody in our country by doing many illegal search and seizures of people who could or could not be terrorist. 2)The airlines doing there damndest to make what happen to 9-11 by over doing security measures to the nth degree by thinking that anything and every little sharp pieces of metal could be an instrument of hijacking. Now i beleive that box cutters are dangerous and maybe some swiss army knives but (true story) on my way back from Otakon I had the swords (fucking plastic swords) from my FF 10 Yojimbo figure taken cause they are over doing it. So I think that if we did not have this thought that we were invincable then none of this shit would have happened.
Oh yeah and that shit that Rev. Jerry Fallwell said about God removing his protective veil was bullshit. Thank you
Well, as if it's any surprise, I'm late with my 9-11 speech. However, *cracks knuckles* I will write one now.
One year ago there was a tragedy and, no it wasn't that I ran out of soda or chips. The most horrific act of terrorism in US history took place in New York and Washington. I was genuinely worried when Washington happened because a friend of mine's father occasionally does freelance work at the Pentagon. It turned out that he was/is ok. He was lucky enoough to not be within five miles of that particular disaster. Unfortunately, I do know some people who were affected by these events and my best wishes go out to everyone who suffered that day and in the following days to come.
Now that I have given my positive report, I, probably not a surprise to many of you, have some criticisms on how the country as a whole has conducted ourselves over the last year. This may sound callous to most and downright mean to others, but I am only expressing my opinion on certain matters. If any of this offends you, I apologize only to those who have been personally affected by these events.
- To every person who still has an American flag larger than 8 1/2 x 11 on their car, we get the point. I'm as patriotic as the next person, however I feel that if you respect your country and the people in it, you don't have to advertise to total strangers your pride. That goes the same for religion.
- I don't have cable so my television choices are a bit limited. On that note, I believe that the rememberance ceremonies on EVERY channel was a little bit much. If people had the time to and wanted to watch these ceremonies all day, I suggest that you spend time with your community in rememberence. I'm pretty sure that you could find a group of people to share that sentiment with in your town
- Last but not least, any person that carves kill, fuck or nuke all arabs, muslims, "towel heads" or any other name for people of that region in bathroom stalls, should be severly and thoroughly beaten in public in front of their families. I don't think I have to explain why.
I've said my piece, and as I said before I only apologize if I have offended those personally affected by the attacks whether they worked or were visiting these places or you are family and friends of the heroes of that horrific day.
This is probably the longest update you will ever see from me and I hope you go away feeling a little different.
Jason Roberts