So today is Sept. 12, 2011 which means that yesterday was Sept. 11, 2011. It marked the 10th anniversary since the World Trade Center buildings were brought down. Naturally Facebook and social 'media' (oh yea, it's 'media' not media. Just like it’s Infotainment and not 24 hour 'news',) exploded with copy+paste statuses and statuses that talked about where people where when they first saw or heard about the attack. There was a lot of buildup leading up to yesterday with many different memorial services taking place and many, many different angles of coverage from the bevy of news coverage on the topic.
It was in the midst of all this flood of memorials and Never Forget reminders that I realized how irritated I was with most of it At first I thought it was merely me being me....an uncaring asshole who just didn't care about other people. A cold hearted beast of a person that could empathize with someone who was still grieving 10 years later.
So I sat silent, trying my best not to be jerk to others that DID care. I just felt like as a country we raise the flag of Sept. 11th to make ourselves feel like we are still doing the right thing around the world, fighting the good fight as it were.
It wasn't until I was talking with a coworker sharing our mutual feelings about death, mourning and all things puppy dogs and rainbows when I realized something. I didn't just have 10 years of memories about one day in Sept. 2001. I had 10 years of reflection as well.
We live in a world that has forever been changed because of someone’s heinous actions. But HOW has it been changed? Has it changed for the better? Are we REALLY safer and more secure than we were before the attacks? More importantly, for me is, can we TRULY be more secure and safe than we were in the past?
A lot of things have happened in the last 10 years, aside from 3,650 days or 87,600 hours passing hour by hour, day by day.
The country as a whole has moved from a 'we stand together and united' to a near rift among one another when it comes to politics. We have changed into a country where we are mere moments from complete and utter disaster along with letting the terrorists 'win'.
I am not the same person I was 10 years ago. Not only am I 10 years older now, but I've also changed a lot of my ideals BECAUSE of Sept. 11th. Only, it wasn't the attacks that changed them, it was the way we've acted as a whole SINCE the attacks that have changed me.
I was for the military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, I definitely question the 'why' behind Iraq. People argue about 'oil money' or 'personal vendetta', but for me I think it was just a series of bad choices made by a large group of people that wanted to impress their higher ups. I don't think it was as cut and dry as people want to believe....because life is not cut and dry. We have plot and reason in stories BECAUSE life doesn't always have those elements. And I think it's the same here.
We enacted 'The Patriot Act' which was 'Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism.' Only all it has seemed to aid in the arresting those high risk drug dealers rather than people trying to blow stuff up in America. But hardly anyone really lobbied against it because to do so would be considered 'unpatriotic' and 'against America'. But it's cool; it's only YOUR civil rights being flushed.
I look back over the last 10 years and feel jaded. Not jaded from the events of that day, if anything it made me realize just how nice that we have it in the U.S. How free from random terror and violence compared to other nations where people roam the streets outfitted with automatic weapons (and I'm not talking about Iraq or Afghanistan either, looking to you Africa!)
People seem to have a hard time looking outside of their lives to see things how others see them (I know I suffer from the same problem as well.) But there is a funny thing about outside of America.... EVERYTHING from America IS America. Starbucks=America. McDonald's=America. Hollywood Movies=America. U.S. Corporations =America.
Having been in the military I've done my fair share of yearly 'Operational Security' briefings than I care to remember. And they would always tell you to try and NOT look like and obvious American (as if being in the Middle East or Southeast Asia it's easy to blend in. And being a person with close cropped hair isn't going to SCREAM military.) But the other part they would always try to impart on you, when talking about overseas and outside of America, is that YOU the individual also represented America. So if you were going out and getting trashed or acting like an ass, that is what people would think American's are like. It's the same reason that if you've been in a conversation with someone from another country, you are likely to have heard "that is how you American's think" at some point during the conversation.
For some reason before 9/11 we lived in a world that was small and only existed within the confines of our national borders. Post 9/11 we have had to realize there is a world around us. We have to care about how we are perceived in places like the Middle East. It doesn't need to be a case of trying to make everybody happy, but at the very least you have to give consideration for what we are doing.
So I suppose in the end, much like some that was directly affected by 9/11, I too have been touched by those events. It just wasn't in an instant like it was for some folks. Instead it took 10 years for me to realize all that had happened to me.
It was in the midst of all this flood of memorials and Never Forget reminders that I realized how irritated I was with most of it At first I thought it was merely me being me....an uncaring asshole who just didn't care about other people. A cold hearted beast of a person that could empathize with someone who was still grieving 10 years later.
So I sat silent, trying my best not to be jerk to others that DID care. I just felt like as a country we raise the flag of Sept. 11th to make ourselves feel like we are still doing the right thing around the world, fighting the good fight as it were.
It wasn't until I was talking with a coworker sharing our mutual feelings about death, mourning and all things puppy dogs and rainbows when I realized something. I didn't just have 10 years of memories about one day in Sept. 2001. I had 10 years of reflection as well.
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| What I don't like...defacing the American Flag... (Google Search) |
A lot of things have happened in the last 10 years, aside from 3,650 days or 87,600 hours passing hour by hour, day by day.
The country as a whole has moved from a 'we stand together and united' to a near rift among one another when it comes to politics. We have changed into a country where we are mere moments from complete and utter disaster along with letting the terrorists 'win'.
I am not the same person I was 10 years ago. Not only am I 10 years older now, but I've also changed a lot of my ideals BECAUSE of Sept. 11th. Only, it wasn't the attacks that changed them, it was the way we've acted as a whole SINCE the attacks that have changed me.
I was for the military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, I definitely question the 'why' behind Iraq. People argue about 'oil money' or 'personal vendetta', but for me I think it was just a series of bad choices made by a large group of people that wanted to impress their higher ups. I don't think it was as cut and dry as people want to believe....because life is not cut and dry. We have plot and reason in stories BECAUSE life doesn't always have those elements. And I think it's the same here.
We enacted 'The Patriot Act' which was 'Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism.' Only all it has seemed to aid in the arresting those high risk drug dealers rather than people trying to blow stuff up in America. But hardly anyone really lobbied against it because to do so would be considered 'unpatriotic' and 'against America'. But it's cool; it's only YOUR civil rights being flushed.
I look back over the last 10 years and feel jaded. Not jaded from the events of that day, if anything it made me realize just how nice that we have it in the U.S. How free from random terror and violence compared to other nations where people roam the streets outfitted with automatic weapons (and I'm not talking about Iraq or Afghanistan either, looking to you Africa!)
People seem to have a hard time looking outside of their lives to see things how others see them (I know I suffer from the same problem as well.) But there is a funny thing about outside of America.... EVERYTHING from America IS America. Starbucks=America. McDonald's=America. Hollywood Movies=America. U.S. Corporations =America.
Having been in the military I've done my fair share of yearly 'Operational Security' briefings than I care to remember. And they would always tell you to try and NOT look like and obvious American (as if being in the Middle East or Southeast Asia it's easy to blend in. And being a person with close cropped hair isn't going to SCREAM military.) But the other part they would always try to impart on you, when talking about overseas and outside of America, is that YOU the individual also represented America. So if you were going out and getting trashed or acting like an ass, that is what people would think American's are like. It's the same reason that if you've been in a conversation with someone from another country, you are likely to have heard "that is how you American's think" at some point during the conversation.
For some reason before 9/11 we lived in a world that was small and only existed within the confines of our national borders. Post 9/11 we have had to realize there is a world around us. We have to care about how we are perceived in places like the Middle East. It doesn't need to be a case of trying to make everybody happy, but at the very least you have to give consideration for what we are doing.
So I suppose in the end, much like some that was directly affected by 9/11, I too have been touched by those events. It just wasn't in an instant like it was for some folks. Instead it took 10 years for me to realize all that had happened to me.
| I don't have the heart to make the jokes, so I give you this clever raccoon. (gamepro.com) |
"We have plot and reason in stories BECAUSE life doesn't always have those elements. And I think it's the same here."
ReplyDeleteDamn skippy