Thoughts on 9/11 (NJ 17 / 87)

This is about a day late, but I was quite busy yesterday and I'm on my reading break right now. Assume it's Friday. Pardon if it's disorganized, but this is a blog after all.

It has been eight years since 9/11, and for the most part much of the discussion of the event's tragedy has dissipated. The news outlets I saw mainly discussed global progress in the "War on Terror" in the past eight years; whether in "Where is Usama ibn Laden?" segments, "Target Afghanistan" segments, etc.

This is, of course, a far cry from seven years ago when candlelight vigils were held in many places across the globe accompanied by relief concerts and gigantic skylights rising from the ashes of the World Trade Center. Now one has to be the King of Pop evoke a more annoying variation of the same reaction.

I think part of it is because, as a result of 9/11 being used to justify a variety of unpopular decisions by the Bush Administration, people subconsciously view it with a sort of disdain and stray away from most attempts to express sympathy. Indeed, I heard a number of people compare the deaths in 9/11 to the total deaths of all civilians and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But perhaps this is a good thing? I personally believe that without significant public pressure, one is able to more efficiently meditate on what 9/11 means to him/her.

Personally, 9/11 will first and foremost be associated with gnats. Whenever someone mentions gnats, I think of 9/11. This is because, when I was watching coverage of the Twin Towers burning, I saw what looked like gnats flying off of windows.

Although I was in Grade 5, I wasn't a moron; and I knew that they couldn't possibly be gnats. When I looked closer, I saw small lines moving around. I was even more confused. It took a few minutes to realize that I was investigating the flailing limbs of people who chose to jump to their deaths rather than burn alive. That was my first real experience with death in its horrifyingly brutal variations.

I will also always associate 9/11 with a certain level of annoyance. After years of hearing people scream about 9/11 being an act of war, 9/11 being a lesson in the importance of national security, and 9/11 being used as a justification for murder- this is where those fun statistical comparisons to dead people in the Middle East and South Asia come in-, I think people have forgotten about the hopeful elements of that day.

I remember 9/11 very clearly. 9/11 was a day when New Yorkers, whether city personnel or untrained civilians, risked and in some cases gave their lives to save others. It was a day when partisanship took an appreciated vacation because of an unspoken agreement that divisions were pointless in the face of this tragedy. It was a day when, despite some isolated celebrations, people all over the world offered the United States solidarity and mourned the deaths of people most of them did not even know.

It was a day when people stood together in the face of calculated evil to assist and support each other for no other reason than they were human beings in need. I personally believe that to remember 9/11 is to have a sort of rejuvenation in one's hope in mankind; and is a completely different thing than both analyzing and exploiting 9/11. I try my best not to mix the three.