A lot of material both political and moral has been said and written about that day in the year 2001 when a few jetliners irreversibly acquainted themselves with two towers, a military headquarters and a field in Pennsylvania.
The only thing unambiguous about that day is that a few thousand people will never see the sun rise again. They became a statistic on the list of casualties of a perennial war that has been waged for centuries between factions in their self-righteous quest for power and glory irrespective of their religion.
A discussion on NPR (National Public Radio) told about how an interpretation of the role of figures in the Koran and the Bible led to an age-old conflict which began with the Crusades. The speaker said that the rest of the world has always lived in the shadow of this war and Sept. 11th welcomed the US to the club, albeit in a brutal manner.
Coming to that day, an idyllic summer morning, the day seemed perfect to be spent in the appreciation of New York city’s finest: the women, especially after the tiresome process of getting a cousin settled for his freshman year at Columbia. It came with the eerie feeling of a calm before a storm. After heading out to get a cup of Arabica, something on the morning news woke me up better than Red Bull ever did.
In a frenzy to get as far away from New York city as possible, began making calls to every single airline I could think of, but if the govt. could have it, even birds wouldn’t fly that day. All the news stations were screaming ’’America under attack’’, each trying to outdo the other in their coverage of what they thought was the most historically significant ’’world’’ event after Pearl Harbor.( The American media’s, specifically the network news channels interpretation of what the world is made up of)
When I finally reached the local edition of Hertz, the going rate for even an economy car was astronomical. And this was at a place which was struggling to move cars before ’’Terror Tuesday’’. With a sense of futility coming from the knowledge that the airport rental is going to be worse, I finally shelled out the rate with the end-of-liners offering to pay most of the fare to Anywhere, USA if you agreed to take them along. With the advice that this was no time for a brown guy to be driving alone, picked the ones who I thought wouldn’t chicken out on me if push comes to shove.
A remarkable contrast that I saw was that when I talked to couple of New Yorkers they had that ’’sh*t happens’’ attitude, but for some reason hicks from small towns across USA felt personally violated and wanted to burn the rest of the world for ’’hating America’’. A general feeling of xenophobia seemed to sweep across the nation and you knew that feeling, if you lived in India during the Bombay blasts.
From a moral standpoint Sept. 11th was a catastrophe of the worst magnitude, but what disturbs me is the lack of introspection in people, a defiant conviction in the perfection of their moral, religious and political values and the devaluation of the lives of humans in countries other than their own. Is ignorance bliss or is Sept. 11th a byproduct of people not holding their governments accountable for their actions ?
There is a thinly veiled racism in thinking that nobody else is capable of adopting democracy as an institution without American intervention. The same kind of attitude that leads to some very distasteful ’’jokes’’ on late night television. After watching the recently concluded Republican National Convention I couldn’t help wondering if the delegates have been watching too much of Mel Gibson’s Payback and repeating the mantra of one of the characters ’’ What I cannot understand I get rid of’’
Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were and are very real threats to anybody who doesn’t want their life controlled by the dictates of a religious book. But honestly I can’t tell the difference between Islamic fundamentalist groups and Christian fundamental groups or any other religious group which advocates extreme ideas and views the world in black & white, calling people who want to examine the shades of grey as ’’wimps’’, ’’commies’’ or as the future policy maker of the Republicans said ’girly men’.
The irony of this tragedy is that it is being exploited politically to award the incumbent another four years in office from the looks of it. I guess people get the government they deserve. But I admire the resilience of the people of New York who were going about their business the next day or almost immediately, unlike a lot of people who lived in places not exactly on the priority list of terrorist organizations.
Abe Lincoln, probably one of the most introspective President (and a real war president a term loosely applied nowadays to people of dub(yas)ious intentions ) said that he didn’t say that god was on his side but prayed that he was on God’s side, a lesson to take note of for the fire-breathers on either side. But I would be simplifying the actions that lead to acts of terrorism if all is blamed on religion or lack of spirituality as one of my friends pointed out. Killing yourself with a total belief in your cause doesn’t indicate lack of spirituality, but a presence of it, even though its a misguided cause.
Have we learnt the lesson(s) that Sep 11th taught us? I don’t know, only time will tell.