My thoughts on 9/11

[gridlore]

There's a picture going around of woman displaying a photo with accompaning text reading "Today is ONLY about my sister and the other innocents killed nine years ago."

The problem is, she's wrong.

9/11 was the result of an incredibly complex web of influences and sources dating back to the birth of the Wahhabi sect in the 18th century, Western actions in the region, US support of the Mujaheddin against the Soviets, the establishment of US bases in Saudi Arabia after Desert Storm, and many, amny other things.

9/11 is the result of two centuries of religious thinking, political maneuvering, wars, and cynical actions by governments and leaders around the globe. To reduce it only to the fall of the towers and the resulting deaths is to deny the reality of history.

Studying history isn't just about knowing what happened, but striving to understand why it happened. Mourn those lost. I'm remembering a couple of friends and one man who I'm sure I would have gotten along with like a house on fire (from what I understand, it's likely that Liam and I getting together might well have resulted in that) but I'm not going to reduce the event to a soundbite.

That cheats the dead. They did, in fact, die for a reason. A lousy one, but if we want to understand that reason, we need to learn.

Comments

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned in my journal:

This is A (singular) day of rememberence meant for the victims. There were quite a few things, over numerous years leading up to it...

But THIS was the culmulation we're talking about.

Should we not observe Pearl Harbor day because it doesn't speak to the political troubles in Germany?

Should we not observe MLK day because it doesn't speak to the carpetbaggers directly?


The point is you CAN observe a single event, even if it's part of a larger chain. Paying a moment of rememberance of people who died on our shores does not take away from the suffering of others -- we care about them too.... but those were OUR people who ided on OUR homeland and we need to remember them.


The bottom line is: Do we believe a memorial or funeral is the place for an argument? Or can we take it outside or wait another time to argue?

My take

[capplor.livejournal.com]

on the opening sentence: She's right, but only for herself, and even at that she's limited. Many of us know someone who knows someone who died in the WTC. Most of us haven't directly lost someone close to us in the attack. If she can't get to the point of asking "How can we prevent another attack?", or "What does it really mean?" then I can certainly sympathize, having lost loved ones myself. But those questions are necessary for us as a nation to consider and she has opted out of that discussion, as more than she can handle.