Tomorrow is September 11th, 2011, the tenth anniversary of the day the world forever changed. The twin towers being brought down by extremists captivated the whole world, even people who'd never been in the World Trade Center or even New York for that matter. It was the day time stood still for my generation just like JFK being shot was for my parents and Pearl Harbor for theirs. I've never met a person who didn't know exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Thinking back, it seems like we knew this was bigger than anything we could imagine, even before we actually knew it. We hear of planes hitting homes and buildings all the time, but rarely does it demand our immediate attention like the news of the first tower being hit did. I knew instantly that something was horribly wrong because the plane was flying into restricted airspace, something the average Joe wouldn't know unless you flew as much as I did. And I was immediately interested because my uncle's company had offices in the first tower and even though his office was in Building 7, the 3rd building to fall on 9/11, I also knew he spent a lot of time in tower one. In fact I'd been there only 3 days before meeting him for lunch. All these facts peaked my interest very quickly but in reality, everyone stopped in their tracks that day.
Since this year is the tenth anniversary of the attack, there has been even more attention given to the victims, their families, the survivors and the heroes of 9/11 than usual. It's hard to watch without renewing old tears. A month ago I was standing at the site, with towers gone and the memorial still under construction. It was an eery feeling, knowing that nearly 3,000 people lost their lives right there and technically there is probably still bone dust and human remains mingled in with the soil that will never be recovered. The sickness in the pit of my stomach has only been felt one other time and that was when I stood on the ground of Dachau, the first of Hitler's many concentration camps to open in Germany. I can't really describe the feeling, other than to say it never really left me. In some way, it altered me forever.
What I'm about to say will be incredibly controversial, but it's how I feel so I'm just going to say it. When I left Dachau, I was ashamed of my German heritage and I've never been able to shake it. I know all the political and economic reasons why the German nationals allowed Hitler to reign, but I can't get beyond the fact that they, as a nation, turned their heads away from the Holocaust and allowed the atrocities to take place. They watched as whole neighborhoods disappeared and they looked away. Some tried to justify the treatment of the Jews, others were just grateful they weren't jewish, but either way, they did nothing.
And here comes the controversial part.... standing at ground zero, I felt the same shame at being an American. 3,000 of my fellow Americans died on that day and then tens of thousands more went to war supposedly because of the 9/11 attacks and thousands of those died too. We all know those people died because of several Al-Qaeda terrorists who volunteered for a suicide mission. On the surface, we were told that they hate our freedoms and our way of life so they attached us. Seriously, does anybody actually believe that? Does that even remotely make sense? But most of us swallowed the pill of BS our government shoved down our throats because it's easier to handle. No one wants to believe the US government could possibly be guilty of war crimes or atrocities worse than the attack in New York that day so we drink the kool-aid and turn our heads away from the truth.
I wish I could point my finger at the Bush administration and blame my rant strictly on them but that would be stupid and naive. The far-reaching destruction of our governmental policies began long before Bush ever entered office and probably will continue long into the future. We have covertly removed heads of foreign governments, both literally and figuratively, influenced election outcomes, both inside the US and out, overturned sitting governments, and quietly started "civil" wars that would kill hundreds of thousands of civilians in 3rd world countries for the benefit of American corporations (google the Guatemalan civil war and read about the United Fruit Co...also known as Chiquita Banana). We don't assist foreign governments or their citizens unless they have sometime we want such as oil, produce or minerals. I realize many feel it's not our job to save the whole world and I also realize I'm a bleeding heart liberal, but I'm tired of our government quietly taking whatever they want from any other country on the planet while we pretend not to notice. And truthfully the blame does not lie solely at the feet of our government either. They wouldn't be protecting our interests in these foreign countries if American citizens didn't demand more and more of whatever we get from these foreign lands at the cheapest price available.
We in American still suffer under the delusion that we are an isolated nation but mark my words, another attack will come. And when it does, mourn the dead because they are the innocent victims, the collateral damage of our world domination. Pray for the families and the survivors because they deserve all the help they can get- physical, financial, emotional and spiritual. Champion the heroes who risk their own lives to save others and honor our military brothers and sisters who blinded follow orders given to them without once considering the cost to themselves and their own families. But do not swallow any more kool-aid of the American government. Do not act as if the attack was "unprovoked", because it wasn't. Do not pretend that America is an innocent victim because we, as a country, are anything but innocent.
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