OK, at first I wasn't going to write anything on 9/11 but then how could I not. I don't think there is anyone alive in this country that was a little shaken by the lose of life and innocence it created. As someone who still gets, as cheesy as it may sound, goose pimples when the National Anthem is played, it really effected me a great deal more then I excepted it ever would. I woke late as usual on the 11th, checked the messages on the cel and there was a news story on a plane crashing into the WTC. I thought that's strange but until I talked to my mother and she explain the full situation it really didn't sink in. I turned on the TV, CNN I think and nothing really prepared me to watching people jumping from windows to avoid being burned alive. That will be engraved on my vision for the rest of my days.
I guess the first thing that goes through everyone's mind in their own safety and the safety of their children and family. As parents we all worry about our children's future with a great deal intensity then we ever did with our own. Quinn's safety and security was the first thing in my mind and then that passed on to what can I do for my fellow country men. there's just something unnerving about watching people, complete and utter strangers that are closely like yourself hurt killed and harm and not knowing what to do to change it.
We all have are own level of comfortable N.I.M.B.Y.(Not In My Back Yard) zone, what doesn't effect us directly isn't our problem and concern but this was something completely different. This is something that could have happened to anyone. American have always seemed isolated from this and it's seemed more so since the end of the cold war. I think, every one that was old enough to know about nuclear war sighed a relaxing breath at the end of the cold war. In a lot of ways this type of Terrorism creates the same effect as the threat of Nuclear War does. The act of push a button and kill millions of people or to fly a plain in to a building, ending the life of those on board, himself and thousands of innocent people is completely insane. There is no cause that could justify that.
The thing that seems to set this apart from other attacks other then it was on US soil and the lost of life, is the complete and utter pointlessness of it. I mean still to this date Oct 2nd no one has stepped forward and said yeah it was me. In the past there was in a lot of cases there has been cause behind it, that had some merit of some from. The IRA as much as pointless as the number of innocent people they killed in bombings there was an objective behind it. The POL and their countless acts of destruction still had a goal of a home land for their people. This if it is truly this nut in Afghanistan is completely pointless. A world with one faith and one religion. The return of the crusades, they killing of people because they don't believe as you do discusses me more then even racism does. Even their own religion voice is against this idea of zero tolerance. It's Faith mixed with Fascism. how do you defeat Faith? It's an un-winnable war for both sides. There will never be a clear victory in anyway with this. If civilization has learned anything it's short existence it's zero-tolerance is the path to destruction. Ideals different from your own are like roaches even though you may not see them and you think you've killed them, there will always be one or two hiding beneath the floor board waiting to sneak out in to the light of day. You can't destroy them so you must not embrace them but at least tolerate them. The US has done a fairly good job at this. It has been a slow evolution and it can always do better but we are learning and progessing.
As someone that was never drafted, never lost a close friend in a was on foreign soil and is well beyond the reach of the draft, I fear for the current generation. I feel greatly blessed that my generation was saved from another Viet Nam, Korea or World War. The US has for the most part enjoyed 25 years of relative peace. Now that may all be changed. Afghanistan is the country that got the USSR out of the communism business. It has all the markings of another Viet Nam or Korea with political goals as vague as the War on Terrorism or the War on Drugs. It's like having a war to end the eating of cheese burgers. Undefined and without clear objectives. I'm old enough to remember body counts, friendly fire and carpet bombing. War that loses it's clear goal in a sea of numbers and double speak.
So I think it's clear to see that the US will return to a age of Duck & Cover security. increase security at airports and put our heads in the sand and hope it doesn't happen again. Terrorism is like anything it will always evolve, it will always progress and change. The people that planned this attack weren't a bunch of morons pissed off about something this country did that decide on Monday morning to do this on Tuesday. These are people that are of a high intelligence, many well off finical, and well organized. Let's face a fact here, even in this society were have a hero worship fetish for those willing to give up their life for something they believe in. There was a level of rotational thought that went into this. I think it is safe to say that this is not the last time we see something like this unless we are willing to give up our own civil liberties for our own protection. The easiest way to get someone to give up their freedom is to offer security in its place. I for one would rather deal with the threat of some nut flying a plane into where I work then give up one civil liberty. I feel I and my fell Americans have far few as it is. oh and instead of bailing out the airlines why not spend the money on rail transport and making Amtrack more efficient and affordable. It is more fuel effective, cost less to operate and is something the rest of the world figured out a long time ago.
The next thing you're going to hear is close the boarders. This is just plain silly. I enjoy the diversity of our neighborhoods, I love seeing people of different colors and cultural backgrounds inter acting, because it always creates something new. It tends to bring the best out of all cultures and creates a highbred that is better then all the cultures involve. Plus this country was built on immigration. our great society regardless of it's faults would not exist without the intergradation of ideas, art, culture and etc... from every part of this planet. If anything open the boarders, let everyone in. Not just the rich and the well off that can afford to get in but the poor and those in need of shelter. Most of the hardest working, patriot people I've met in my life were immigrants like our forefathers were. To those that don't feel that way go to Afghanistan or a number of other Arab country that have zero tolerance for other cultures and truly know the mean of a people of one mind without diversity. Let's face a fact here, one of the things that has set America apart from the world in the past has been our immigration policy and our diversity that is a product of it. So, in closing our boards in a way we are allowing these religious nuts a victory.
If a war does happen it will be a drawn out, long term, and costly war. This is not going to be no Exon Gulf Classic but the real thing. I think we will see the levels we saw at the end of WWII and the effects that our families are still recovering from. I think when Americans look back on WWII they see it as the good war. Yes it was a war that ended a truly evil power in Germany and Japan but it also destroyed the family. Increases of divorce, teen crime, teen pregnancy, drug uses and etc... some of our society's worst problems can all be traced back to the end of WWII. War is not about deaths only it's about the destruction of culture, family, life goals and dreams. The effect is long reaching and does effect the generation that come after. Too often we like to simplify this into simple terms like numbers and cost instead of thinking about how it will really effect us as a whole. An easy way to look at this is think of your great grandfather, if they had died before reproducing then not only would you not be here but neither would you siblings, your mother or father, your aunts and uncles, your grandmother or grandfather, your great uncles and aunts, your nieces and nieces and your children. On my mother side that would be close to 300 or so family members. It may seem small but think into the far future as that multiples again and again.
Personally I would like to see this country of ours mourn the lost, help those that have been effected, and just ignore the attack and get on with life. Terrorist are like serial killers and bullies they crave attention. Attention feeds their ego and their power. A thing that has always stuck in my head is a picture taken during the German bombing of London. It was a Milkman in his white uniform delivering the milk through a pile of bombed and burned out buildings. I mean here is this guy that has seen his neighborhood destroyed, more than likely loss of lives of friends and/or relatives, was in a bomb shelter the night before praying that his life and the lives of his family would be spared, and here he is delivering the Milk. Why cause people need Milk. A simply need. Children still played in the street, people still listened to the radio, went to the movies and to work all through it life went on. It confused the hell out of the Germans cause the whole point of bombing London was to destroy the English will to fight but they still keep on go like nothing was different. I don't have the answers and I rarely do but I know one thing spending billions upon billions on a war with an uncertain out come or effect is not going to give the level of security that investing billions of dollars in social programs will. You want a safe future for your children? Invest in Schools, Teacher Salaries, playgrounds, free healthcare, free daycare, drug treatment and etc... You will see an effect in the security of your children's future and able all their well being. Spending money searching out and destroy one threat, as history has taught us, will only produce more terrorist, more dictators, more destruction and more loss of life.
