Today is a strange day. I don't mean this day as in Tuesday, but this day as in September 11th.
I feel a little ashamed, but I almost forgot until I saw the statuses posted on Facebook. Never forget. I remember. Etcetera.
Of course, I don't actually forget that 9/11 in general happened, but as a native of Oregon and thus, the West Coast, I felt very far removed from it all. Of course I remember what happened that day. How my dad came home from dropping my sister off at the high school and immediately turned on the television, and I watched in awe as a building I hadn't even known about until that day was burning, and they kept replaying the first plane fly into the tower. I remember waiting at the bus stop with my fellow 7th grade friends, discussing what was going on, even though we couldn't quite comprehend. "My parents said it could be the start of World War III," said one of my friends. It hit me a little more then.
All day long we watched footage on the news and all of our teachers tried to make sense of it with us. It took a few years for me to realize the magnitude of that infamous event, and each year, I find myself still trying to understand it.
I am from the West Coast and I don't have any close friends or family who have been in Iraq since the war began, and at the time, I knew absolutely no one from the East Coast. Since I've been in college and moved around and traveled a bit more, I have met people who are from the East Coast, and New York specifically. I have become friends with people who's family members have been to Iraq. Obviously it isn't the same for me as it is for them, because it hits closer to home for them, but I now can see the affects through their eyes, and in turn, I feel as if I have a little more understanding.
But who will ever be able to understand it, really? How can we wrap our minds around such hate? How can we wrap our minds around how terrible that day really was? I think part of why I never felt really affected is because the whole thing seemed surreal. Kind of like, "Wait, did that really happen? Seriously? Is this some kind of sick joke?"
Of course it happened, and that is what sucks. The fact is, the US has ticked off some people, and other countries have ticked us off as well. No country deserves to go through what we went through, but hasn't our country put people through the same kind of thing? I mean, remember when we bombed Japan? Yikes. I'm not saying anyone is more to blame than the other, because we could go in circles with that, but I'm merely commenting on the fact that there is a lot of terrible shit that happens in the world, and I wish there wasn't. Call me an idealist, because I am, but I really think the world just needs more love. I'm not stupid, and I know that a perfect world will never exist because that would be boring, but if people just took a little more time out of each day to think about their actions and words and to put others first, things could be a whole lot better. It starts small, in the one kind word you say to someone, and it can grow and spread to so many others and really change things.
But as I said, a perfect world won't exist, and we need things to rock our life as we know it and to make us realize what really matters. Don't just think about those things on days like today, when we were affected. We should remember the days that we did some pretty crappy things as a country to others, because, I hate to break it to you but, we've done a lot. So every day, think about 9/11 and what that means if you need to, but think about the suffering that other parts of the world have gone through. I'm not trying to downplay the hurt from this day or disrespect it, because this day and all of the families hurting from the loss of loved ones who were and are fighting to protect our country definitely deserve a hell of a lot of respect, but we shouldn't focus on ourselves the whole time.
And hey, I know I especially need to work on that, but if we make the conscious decision to think this way, things really could get better. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one....
This song, "African Benediction", takes words from the prayer of St. Francis. I sang it in University Choir last year for the 10th Anniversary. It was the same song they sang when they were called on to sing something at the candlelight vigil that Millikin held 11 years ago today. This song is beautiful, and if I pray one prayer for the rest of my life, it would be this one.
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
Hanna, THANK YOU for speaking what many of us feel. September 11 was a tragedy, no doubt. The day is etched in my brain. But you are so right - there are MANY tragedies, large and small scale, that affect all parts of the globe.
ReplyDeleteI flinch whenever I see the day called "Patriot Day". It was not patriotic to be burned alive, crushed to death, mangled under tons of rubble. It is evil to usurp the horror of this day, to elbow past the grief of the families who lost loved ones, to twist their tragedy into a day of chest beating in favor of political ideology.
We remember and respect all who died on that day. It was a terrible day. But for me, a more terrible day happened a little over a year later. No one gives speeches on October 3. No one flies flags. No one dedicates parks and statues. But October 3, 2002 was a worse day for me.
Tragedy is not measurable by numbers of dead or by method of death. It is tragic to all who experience it. If we are to set September 11 on a pedestal, let us set it as a day of remembrance for all who have died, in all wars and in no wars, in large numbers and in small. Let us call it Remembrance Day, for death is no respecter of nation or ideology.