Reflections and closure

Has it really been almost ten years?

Every so often, you have these quintessential events, burned into the psyche of a people so deeply that everyone not only remembers the event, but that event changes who we are. Pearl Harbor was one. JFK's assassination was another. For my generation, the generation of kids who were still in school on 9/11/2001, the events of that day have shaped our lives.

There are kids in high school today who were only in kindergarten when the planes hit the towers. The majority of their lives have been colored by this event. I was older, in high school at the time, and so I was old enough to appreciate the change that came over the country on that day.

Without trying to sound too poetic, that day is like a scar upon my soul. Even ten years later, I can never think on that day without tears welling up, as I remember the emotions of that day. The disbelief at what I was seeing, the growing realization turning to horror and fear, feeding a righteous anger. I may disagree with many of the things Bush did during his term, but I have always given him credit for his restraint in those first few days. Knowing how my emotions were running in those first few days, my reaction to seeing the tapes of bin Laden congratulating his men on how well the attack went would have been to turn all of Afghanistan into a nuclear wasteland, slagging down the entire Tora Bora mountains into rubble that would glow in the dark.

What my generation lost that day was more than towers or lives. We lost our innocence. As a generation, we were forced to realize that the world was a dark, terrible place, that would hurt you if it could. Oh sure, we knew about the lesser dangers close to home, the bullying, muggings, and crime we saw on the TV from day to day. But nothing like the unreasoning hatred that could cause someone to do something like this.

The attacks on the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 happened a month before I was born. It was something out of the history books for me. I was eleven when the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed in 1995. I saw the reports, was fascinated by the sight of a building with a big hole in it, and then turned the channel to watch cartoons. The bombing of the Cole in 2000 I remember, but that was a small thing, very remote. It was 'over there'.

What happened on September 11, 2001 was not 'over there'. It was immediate, it was here. And as a generation, we were forced to deal with that horrible discovery that the world was not a nice place, that it would kill you if it could, and that death could come in an instant from the skies above.

Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, I find myself once again praising a president for his restraint. I would not have given bin Laden a respectful burial at sea. I would have had him shipped back to the US, tied him to the back of a Harley, and drug his corpse through the streets of New York, before planting his severed head on a pike on the White House lawn.

bin Laden's death will not erase the scars from a decade ago, but I find myself with a sense of closure. The monster responsible for all those deaths has been slain. It won't bring the people back, but no more will be killed because of him. I feel as though a weight that had been hanging from me for so long that I didn't even realize it was there had suddenly been lifted.

bin Laden is dead, but threats still remain. Still, the death of this one viper gives me hope that we can root out the rest of them. It has been a long time since I had that kind of hope.

A Mosque at Ground Zero?

I've tried to avoid commenting on the proposed mosque near the former World Trade Center site. I thought that, surely, people would get their heads out of their collective asses, and see the light.

They haven't.

For all conservative nutjobs talk about the greatness of America, they have an annoying tendency to ignore some truths about America when it doesn't suit their dogmatic point of view. Our nation was founded with the idea of religious freedom in mind. An idea that people, regardless of their creed, should be able to practice their religion freely, and not fear the government's intrusion into that practice, so long as they themselves did not break any laws.

The terrorists that attacked us almost nine years ago to the day did so for many reasons. But one of the most common threads you hear the conservatives talk about is that they attacked us because they hate our freedoms. And there is some truth to that. They want to terrorize us, and use fear and hatred to get us to change our ways.

But the freedom to practice your religion, whatever it is, without prejudice is one of those freedoms.

And it isn't like the Islamic group in question doesn't already have a presence in Manhattan. In fact, they are not making a new congregation. THERE IS ALREADY A MOSQUE NOT TWO BLOCKS FROM THE PROPOSED SITE!

Take a walk around Ground Zero. You know what you'll find? Strip clubs, adult video stores, fast food joints, and the like. Real 'hallowed ground' stuff, right?

Some of the families of victims of 9/11 say that moving an existing mosque two blocks closer to Ground Zero is offensive, that it is some banner of victory to the terrorists who attacked us.

I say they are wrong. It is the people who oppose the mosque that are the offensive ones. It is they that are the banner of victory for the terrorists. For if we change who we are in the face of fear and hatred of what happened, haven't the terrorists truly won? We can win every battle overseas, and not have a single attack on our soil, but if we give up who we are, then we have lost. If we do that, then we vindicate the monsters who attacked us. If we do that, we piss on the memories of the people who died that day. If we do that, we are the testament to our failures as a people.

Freedoms are tricky things. If you say you love a freedom, any freedom, then you have to love that freedom even in times you might disagree with it. Would you oppose a Christian church going up there? Or a Jewish synagogue? Or a Hindu temple? Or a Wiccan shrine? If you love the freedoms this country was founded on, and you say No to even a single one of those questions, then you should not oppose the Islamic mosque going there.

It is a simple thing, to sell out someone else's freedoms when you don't like them. But karma is a bitch, and eventually it will come around to be your turn again. How you act now may determine how others act towards you in the future.

Tell the world that we truly are the land of the free, where a man is judged not by his race, his gender, or his creed, but by the acts he himself does. Because if we look at the terrorists, who have said for years that we are the enemies of all Islam, and we paint all Muslims with the same brush, then we are only proving the terrorists right, vindicating their claims that a jihad is warranted against us. But if we put aside our fear for resolve, or hate for understanding, and allow the mosque to be built, then we show the world that the terrorists were WRONG! We will show them that they may destroy our buildings, and they may take our lives, but they will never change who we truly are, that they will never take our freedoms.

Will you stand for what is right, despite your own bias, your own misgivings, your own fear, your own hate? Will you stand for the freedoms you love? Or will you give in to the terrorists, and allow them to steal our very soul?

Who will stand with me?