Like most of you I spent September 11, 2016 remembering, and
being reminded of, the attacks that took place 15 years ago. The replaying of
images of that day brought back a flood of memories. On 9/11/2001 I was nearing
the end of a less-than-amicable divorce and was living alone in an apartment.
As I prepared to leave for work that morning I turned on the TV for a quick hit
of news while I ate my usual breakfast of pop tarts and Diet Coke. But
something was very unusual that morning. Rather than news dominated by
celebrity dating and marital status the TV was filled with images of a burning
office tower in New York. Talking heads frantically tried to describe and
understand what was happening. I was confused as well. Had a fire broken out in
the tower? An explosion perhaps? Then I saw an airplane streak across the
screen and strike the second tower in a conflagration of fire and debris, and I
knew that the world had changed forever. I watched in horror as people leapt to
their deaths in a desperate attempt to escape the flames, and stood in stunned
silence as the towers collapsed in on themselves.
Over the next few hours it became clear that the United
States had been attacked on our own soil for the first time since the war of 1812.
The terrorists chose their targets carefully, striking at the symbols of
American economic and military power. Later that evening I experienced
something else I had never witnessed in all my years living in the Dallas area
– a sky completely devoid of aircraft.
And as I stood there looking into the sky I wondered, how would America
respond?
Of course America’s response to the attack began as soon as
the first airplane struck the south tower. As crowds of people rushed away from
the area a much smaller cadre ran towards the danger and into the towers in an
attempt to save as many people as possible. No doubt these first responders
were fearful, not knowing what lied ahead. Yet they set aside that fear and did
what they had to do. That, my friends, is the very definition of courage. Meanwhile,
people who had commuted into Manhattan that morning were now trapped, unable to
return to their homes. As commercial ferries struggled to transport the crowds
from the island the Coast Guard broadcast a call for private watercraft to join
the effort, and hundreds of citizens, with boats big and small, responded to
that call. That day some 500,000 people were evacuated from Manhattan in what
has been called the largest single day evacuation in world history. And all across
America people came together across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and
religious boundaries to comfort each other. In that moment, and in the days
that followed, we saw the best of what America represents.
But within a few days the shock had subsided and our
feelings of solidarity turned to anger. How was this possible? Who was
responsible for this cowardly attack? And our anger became hatred focused on
the one man who emerged as the architect of the attacks, Osama bin Laden, the
leader of the al Qaeda terrorist organization.
Intelligence officials believed that bin Laden was operating out of
Afghanistan so our government demanded that the Afghani leaders, members of the
Taliban movement, arrest him and extradite him to America to answer for his
crime. (Of course we helped create the Taliban by training and equipping
Afghani fighters in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in
December of 1979. President Ronald Reagan invited Taliban leaders to a meeting
at the White House, described them as freedom fighters, and compared them to
America’s Founding Fathers.) When the Taliban refused our request we lashed
out, attacking Afghanistan militarily in an attempt to overthrow the Afghani
government and capture bin Laden ourselves.
We succeeded in the former but failed in the latter. And
when it became clear that bin Laden had escaped our grasp, in frustration we
lashed out again, this time attacking Iraq, a country later proven not to be involved
in the 9/11 attacks in any way. The end result of our quest for revenge is two
countries in ruins, two societies in disarray, 4,683 American soldiers killed
in action, and 32,799 wounded. Tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan
civilians have died, hundreds of thousands have been wounded, millions have been
displaced, and American remains mired in the longest war in our history, long
after the initial objective (capturing Osama bin Laden) became irrelevant. Some
20 former soldiers commit suicide every day. And by destabilizing the entire
Mideast we unleashed the forces that created the Islamic State.
As the war ground on our anger morphed into something far
more insidious, fear. Stoked by the media we were (and are) encouraged to fear
anything that represents “the other”. The other has taken on many forms,
different languages, different ethnicities, different races, different
political beliefs, and different religions. All are suspect and not to be
trusted.
If the intent of the terrorist is to disrupt and alter the
target society through acts of violence, have the 9/11 architects achieved
their goals? Objective eevidence supports this hypothesis. We have become a society that no longer
represents traditional American values. We have spent trillions of dollars
fighting a war, the “war on terror”, that cannot be won. Imagine what we could
have done had we focused these monies on the many physical and socioeconomic
problems plaguing our nation. Ignoring our Founding Fathers’ admonition against
foreign entanglements we now maintain a military presence in over
150 countries. Is it any wonder that
other nations describe us as imperialist? Through the so-called “Bush Doctrine”
we have abandoned our historical position against the first use of military
force and now advocate for preemptive war. We turn our backs on refugees
fleeing the same forces we fight and helped create. Through legislation like
the cynically conceived and named “Patriot Act” we sacrificed a portion of
our fourth amendment rights in a quest for security, then act surprised to
find that agencies like the NSA engage in surveillance of us all. And through
the 2016 presidential election we have given a resurgent white nationalist
movement a platform to spout their anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and anti-Semitic
rhetoric. We have become a society of flag pin patriots where the outward
symbols of nation pride outweigh the substance and hard work required of true
patriotism.
But
it doesn’t have to be this way. We must understand that ideologies cannot be
defeated by force. Ideologies can be defeated only by offering a better
ideological alternative. We can regain our national courage and refuse to engage in fear mongering.
We can reassert our historical position against foreign intervention, thereby
removing much of the international animosity directed towards us. We can reclaim
our values by welcoming refugees to our shores and embrace the diversity that
is American society. And, in doing so, we can reclaim our position as Ronald
Reagan’s “shining city on a hill”, become a beacon of hope for the world once
again, and defeat the forces of evil.
On
September 11, 2016 I attended an interfaith service of remembrance hosted by
First United Methodist Church in Plano. Speakers included Christian ministers,
a Jewish rabbi, and leaders of the Islamic, Sikh, and Buddhist communities in
North Texas. I was encouraged by the number of attendees and the respect shown
to all in attendance. I sensed a genuine desire to listen and understand. It
truly was an inspiring event. But perhaps the best expression of the spirit of
the event and our call to action can be found in the words to “Choose Peace”, a
composition by the interim musical director at First Methodist and performed
during the service:
“In
a world where division is all we see, peace on the Earth begins with me. Silent
we no longer stand, cross the bridge and take my hand, choose peace”.
I
choose peace. How about you?
No comments:
Post a Comment