Writings on September 11th, 2001
By J.M.
Foreword
On the evening of September 11th, 2001, on the day of the attacks in New York City on the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists who were masterminded by Osama Bin Laden, a true villain and monster of history whose evil legacy rivals that of Adolf Hitler, the moment I got home from work and school that day, one of the first things I did was write in my journal, I had a feeling that day meant a lot of very sad, very bad things, but I also knew—even back then before everyone had the whole thing sorted out to a degree—that I had to contribute something, I had to do something, I had to write about it. I was uncertain of how I could contribute to this national—and ultimately, international—loss and historic event. So I did what I knew how to do best: I wrote. Here is my account of those events, written 10 years, a decade, ago, on the very day of those events.
September 11th, 2001
Today is a sad day. It’s a day of tragedy and the starting point of future remembrance. If the people of this country need compassion and support (including my own support of them, which will be without question), they definitely have it. And so the tragic story begins.
This morning the World Trade Center near the center of New York City, was hit by terrorist attacks, and is now nothing more than a firing and smoking pile of debris, but I didn’t truly realize how serious the situation was until I got home from school and saw the morbid, World War III-esque, apocalyptic, and horrible images being broadcast on nearly every channel on my satellite TV. The number of victims and dead people is estimated to be reaching the tens of thousands. Intelligence officials believe the terrorist attacks are believed to be related to a terrorist group led by the Middle Eastern terrorist Osama Bin Laden. The images on television looked big and monstrous. When I first heard of the events at school when the teacher announced what had happened, to the entire class, I didn’t even technically know what the World Trade Center looked like, (even though now the two buildings are completely demolished), and didn’t think it was that big of a deal at first. I didn’t know it was those two towering buildings that you always see in wide angle shots of New York City. As a matter of fact, I assumed it was just another over-hyped news story, but now I realize it is a monumental historical event and a world crisis. Leading members from nations all over the world are offering condolences to the United States. The terrorists hijacked four commercial airlines and crashed them into the New York City World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon. President Bush was in Sarasota, Florida when this happened (how ironic). When I looked at the news on TV, it looked like a monstrous nuclear bomb was set off in the heart of New York City. It was undeniably frightening
You could see people falling to the ground from near the top of the building, the cameramen were running to avoid being consumed by smoke and debris, as were all the people on the streets that went as far away as a couple blocks from the World Trade Center, people were bleeding and mangled, screaming, crying, hiding behind cars, on the ground, many of them covered with dirt, ash, and dusty material. Innocent people form all walks of life have died because of this. Seeing the whole thing and getting a sense of it made me absolutely sick to my stomach. This was an unprovoked attack, and these terrorist attacks consisted of considerable amorality and evil. These terrorists are misguided. New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the British Prime Minister delivered eloquent speeches trying to comfort the American people. This is a time when are allies are going to have to show their true support and when we see if George W. Bush can really hold his own. And if he really was a good choice for this country. I agree that whoever is responsible needs to be punished and feel the consequences of their actions, of their unprovoked attack. Not because I hope for vindictive things, but because the United States, the strongest and most powerful nation in the world—but apparently also a vulnerable one—needs to send a message that these kinds of actions and irresponsible foreign act of war are not acceptable. No amount of malice, evil actions, wrong actions, and hatred of this level is “acceptable”. They, the foreign people, don’t deserve this type of sabotage, and neither do we. So as a classmate at my school asked me, “What’s Einstein’s opinion on this?” and apparently he was making reference to me and I guess since I’m a thinker to people I know, I should at least try to come up with an answer. At the time I tried to give a philosophical response, so I replied by saying “Conflicts are an invariable part of human existence.” But of course I think the problem goes much deeper and gets more complex than that. It raises a lot of questions, including moral ones, about now and the future of the world. Were the terrorists Afghans who committed this act connected to Osama Bin Laden? Was Osama Bin Laden directly responsible, and did he motivate the attacks? If so, how big of enemies are the United States and Afghanistan now and then? Keep in mind that I walked into my workplace today, and asked someone if he saw the news today, and my boss said “Don’t make me kill you. I’ll kill you right now. I come from New York.” I was confused and said “huh?” and he said I looked “like ah’ Middle Eastern person,” and I understood, but was shocked he’d respond in such a malicious way verbally, that my own boss would actually make a death threat purely based on how I looked to him at the time. This really helped me to get a gauge on how big the underlying societal international tension is right now. Is terrorism the new world evil, even more menacing than war? What was the reason for such an attack, if any? Will this change the way people in this country live? Is our security good enough? How big of a historic event will this be from now on? Many say it reminds them of “Pearl Harbor”, or that it “looked like something out of a movie.” Combine that with the fact that this is the worst and most heinous or merciless act of terrorism in U.S. history, both contemporary and ancient. Worse than many other news stories of the last decade in time—Worse than practically everything. Will the United States and whoever’s responsible go to war, and even if we don’t, how bad will the U.S. retaliate? What’s the Buddhist perspective on this? How does this coincide with the path to enlightenment or Nirvana?
So here’s my take on the whole thing:
I realize that these acts of violence are horrible and amoral, but despite national security paranoia going on across the country currently, I’m not going to let this fear that seems to be in at least a little bit of everyone stop me from living my life. We must not let lack of hope, or the feeling of fear consume us, otherwise why would we want to continue living? I have no need to fear or worry about what I cannot change or take control over. I simply acknowledge it. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t fear fighting or battle. If this country goes to war, we can rest assured and confronted that our many American allies, the foreign allies of the United States, as well as God perhaps, will be there for us, standing with us, supporting us and backing us up. We will have ourselves as well. We have the power to go on with our lives and recover and Heal from this tremendous tragedy and as long as we don’t let it pierce our spirit. I saw images on the news that showed Middle Eastern citizens outside doing mad celebrations in the streets, burning American flags in the name of this “victory”—which is anything but—even though no one has won this battle. People are dead. Period. There are no winners in war. In the event of war, collectively, all we end up doing is mourning the deaths of the ones who have died fighting, and condemning the lives and acts of the ones who have killed them. There are no winners in the act of war. Only people who live, die, and survive(d). Since we live in a contemporary society, one would think the world would have transcended such brutish acts as war and national attacks, a long time ago, but as it turns out, such is not exactly the case today. It is truly one of the saddest days in American history. It symbolizes more than merely the collapse of two buildings and the deaths of many. It symbolizes the attempt to suppress and oppress both freedom and democracy, and today is more than a day of Tragedy. It is the day of reminder of an example that proves that the act of oppressing and suppressing freedom, liberty, and democracy is truly an evil act, and that it has taken many lives to do nothing more than manifest or demonstrate that the act of oppressing free societies has taken more lives than one could ever count over nearly a lifetime. Today has made me a little sadder, but also made me a little stronger in spirit, and a little wiser about very important things, like getting closer to attaining world peace. I’m not sure if we’ll ever actually attain this goal, but we can at least strive to get a little closer to it
I guess apparently the America, this great nation I live in, has been brought to its knees, for now.
