As everyone knows unless you've been trapped in a 60s-era bomb shelter and can't get out, it's the tenth anniversary of the WTC terrorist bombings.
I'm really not much for anniversaries because I'm not sure they mean anything. Sure, these past ten years amount to one-sixth of my entire life. Anniversaries are human conceits, ways for us to acknowledge the limited time we have on this planet. Things are not the same as they were ten years ago. Everything is different now, and will never be as they were.
I'll leave it to other people more qualified than I to summarize the national trauma and grief we went through. I will say it was one of the worst days of my life, that warm September morning ten years ago. I remember looking at the television news thinking, "This is really REALLY bad." Little did I know what an understatement that was. To this day I avoid looking at any coverage or video footage. To say it was nightmarish is pitifully inadequate; there are no words to describe an unprecedented catastrophe of that nature. Anyone who watched it unfold that day has their own memories deeply, indelibly etched in their consciousness. We don't need video footage to remember; we can never forget.
It's also unbelievable how much our lives have changed. We now have many words and phrases we never could conceive of before. Things like "Al Qaeda," "jihadists," "Al Jazeera," "threat level," and so many more. Air travel has become even more of a spectacular pain in the butt than it ever had been. I used to love to travel so much but now I avoid it like a letter full of anthrax. The Department of Homeland Security was unknown ten years ago. Now we have to remove our shoes at the airport and ridiculously mundane items like bottles of shampoo are regarded as serious threats. Anyone who even looks vaguely middle-Easternish is automatically assumed to be a terrorist, and every U-Haul truck is a potential car bomb.
How can such drastic changes happen in such a short time? There is much discussion on the Internet about the role religion had to play in all this. And the term "religion" includes Christianity and Islam and every other belief system in the world. People are saying that religion is the cause of all this. As anti-religion as I am, I know that is not true. Religion by itself did not do this, but when religion is distorted and corrupted by extremists whose lives are ruled by irrationality and hatred, then these kind of things can happen. People blame Islam for the aircraft plunging into buildings and Pennsylvania farm fields but really, there is barely any noticeable difference between Christian fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists. Religious extremism of any kind can be responsible for unimaginable horror, as history has proven again and again.
So, while I do remember that September morning ten years ago, I prefer to look forward rather than backward. If I thought for one second it would be possible to go back and undo everything and get those 3,000 innocent lives back, I would do it in a nanosecond. But we all know that is impossible. For me, the only rational thing to do is live my life the best way I can, knowing that we only get one life to live and when it's over, it's over. I will live in the present and anticipate the future, and remember everything we lost.
Showing posts with label islamic culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label islamic culture. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The Age of Ignorance
As the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks draws near (Saturday), instead of concentrating on the ongoing ramifications of that horrific event and how much our lives have irrevocably changed since that awful day, we are instead inundated by a rising tide of bigotry and intolerance, from a number of sources.
The debate over the Ground Zero mosque in intensifying, with the opponents seeming to adopt a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) approach; that is, saying that Muslims have every right to build their mosque, just not where I tell them they can't. There's this huge gray area of "respect" for the innocent victims who tragically lost their lives when the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and I fail to understand how building a mosque somehow desecrates their memories. There are liquor stores and porno palaces within equal walking distance from Ground Zero, I don't know why they are not protested for providing an equivalent level of desecration.
No one is expecting anyone who suffered through that horrendous disaster or lost loved ones in such a senseless manner to ever "get over it," but one of the defining moments of a healthy, vibrant society is how it learns from tragedies and overcomes them. Not forget them, but learn from them. To me the very best tribute anyone could ever make to the 9/11 victims is not to succumb to the blind hatred of the terrorists, but instead rise above it. Don't embrace the fear, reject it. Tell the terrorists: you tried to make us afraid and hate our fellow man; we will not, and just as you seek to pull us apart, we will draw together, in a united front against Islamic extremists anywhere and everywhere in the world.
Then we are subjected to a peculiarly noxious version of religious idiocy as the obviously mentally-ill pastor of some minuscule evangelical Christian cult in Florida has taken it upon himself to make some kind of statement (and as far as I'm concerned the only "statement" he is making is how the mental health system in Florida has failed by not institutionalizing him ages ago) about Islam by burning several hundred copies of the Qu'ran, the Muslim holy book on the 9/11 anniversary. It's impossible for me to see how anything positive could come out of this cockamamie publicity stunt. But what is more incomprehensible is how this batshit-crazy nutjob, who looks like he hasn't bathed in a very long time, could be catapulted onto the world-wide stage by being as stupid, obnoxious and bigoted as he can possibly be.
This "Reverend" (term used sarcastically) Terry Jones is being interviewed by every major news outlet on the planet, and it is a publicity windfall beyond his wildest dreams. It is so indicative of how degraded our civilization has become when someone attains a world-wide celebrity (however briefly) by indulging in the most obnoxious, boorish and hateful behavior possible. Despite vociferous condemnations by representatives of every major religious group in the country, plus the Vatican, this pitiful, angry old geezer is stubbornly going ahead with his insane stunt, just like a spoiled, selfish, socially-maladjusted eight-year-old who throws tantrums to get what he wants, no matter what. Maybe Jones and his wife will take a break from their other occupation, selling furniture on eBay, and realize the complete folly of his actions. But I strongly doubt that, the publicity is too important.
That this grimy little ogre and his toilet-bowl opinions are even being paid attention to at all is directly the fault of the eternally loathsome Sarah Palin, who has succeeded in two short years in making ignorance, mediocrity and stupidity acceptable in the United States. There is barely an eyelash-difference between Sarah Palin and Terry Jones. Consider that:
1. They both have arisen from the garbage- and meth-infested cesspools of backward, primitive parts of the country.
2. They both claim to have religious righteousness on their side and use it to prey on the vulnerability and gullibility of uneducated, ignorant people trying to find some meaning in their wretched, pathetic and pointless lives.
3. They both have been given a world-wide stage to spew their stupidity and idiocy - Palin with her failed vice-presidential candidacy and the racist ranks of the Tea Party, and Jones with this Qu'ran burning and anti-Muslim bigotry.
4. They both take on a populist view, claiming to speak for and to the "average American," all the while laughing and sneering at their followers behind their backs for being too dumb to know when they are being played.
5. They both deny any responsibility or culpability for the consequences of their idiotic remarks, with Palin being uncharacteristically quiet about her "Drill, Baby, Drill" philosophy in the wake of the Gulf oil disaster, and Jones haughtily dismissing any possible danger he may be causing our service men and women in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world where Islam is the dominant religion.
How sad, and how telling of the complete moral bankruptcy of our culture that the most deliberately ignorant and willfully hateful members of our society are the ones who are publicized the most. What immense damage is being done to America's image everywhere in the world when Sarah Palin and Terry Jones are the faces everyone sees and associates with the United States. And lastly, how toxic and poisonous to our own nation and culture when two people can aspire to be the biggest assholes in the entire country, and succeed so well.
The debate over the Ground Zero mosque in intensifying, with the opponents seeming to adopt a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) approach; that is, saying that Muslims have every right to build their mosque, just not where I tell them they can't. There's this huge gray area of "respect" for the innocent victims who tragically lost their lives when the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and I fail to understand how building a mosque somehow desecrates their memories. There are liquor stores and porno palaces within equal walking distance from Ground Zero, I don't know why they are not protested for providing an equivalent level of desecration.
No one is expecting anyone who suffered through that horrendous disaster or lost loved ones in such a senseless manner to ever "get over it," but one of the defining moments of a healthy, vibrant society is how it learns from tragedies and overcomes them. Not forget them, but learn from them. To me the very best tribute anyone could ever make to the 9/11 victims is not to succumb to the blind hatred of the terrorists, but instead rise above it. Don't embrace the fear, reject it. Tell the terrorists: you tried to make us afraid and hate our fellow man; we will not, and just as you seek to pull us apart, we will draw together, in a united front against Islamic extremists anywhere and everywhere in the world.
Then we are subjected to a peculiarly noxious version of religious idiocy as the obviously mentally-ill pastor of some minuscule evangelical Christian cult in Florida has taken it upon himself to make some kind of statement (and as far as I'm concerned the only "statement" he is making is how the mental health system in Florida has failed by not institutionalizing him ages ago) about Islam by burning several hundred copies of the Qu'ran, the Muslim holy book on the 9/11 anniversary. It's impossible for me to see how anything positive could come out of this cockamamie publicity stunt. But what is more incomprehensible is how this batshit-crazy nutjob, who looks like he hasn't bathed in a very long time, could be catapulted onto the world-wide stage by being as stupid, obnoxious and bigoted as he can possibly be.
This "Reverend" (term used sarcastically) Terry Jones is being interviewed by every major news outlet on the planet, and it is a publicity windfall beyond his wildest dreams. It is so indicative of how degraded our civilization has become when someone attains a world-wide celebrity (however briefly) by indulging in the most obnoxious, boorish and hateful behavior possible. Despite vociferous condemnations by representatives of every major religious group in the country, plus the Vatican, this pitiful, angry old geezer is stubbornly going ahead with his insane stunt, just like a spoiled, selfish, socially-maladjusted eight-year-old who throws tantrums to get what he wants, no matter what. Maybe Jones and his wife will take a break from their other occupation, selling furniture on eBay, and realize the complete folly of his actions. But I strongly doubt that, the publicity is too important.
That this grimy little ogre and his toilet-bowl opinions are even being paid attention to at all is directly the fault of the eternally loathsome Sarah Palin, who has succeeded in two short years in making ignorance, mediocrity and stupidity acceptable in the United States. There is barely an eyelash-difference between Sarah Palin and Terry Jones. Consider that:
1. They both have arisen from the garbage- and meth-infested cesspools of backward, primitive parts of the country.
2. They both claim to have religious righteousness on their side and use it to prey on the vulnerability and gullibility of uneducated, ignorant people trying to find some meaning in their wretched, pathetic and pointless lives.
3. They both have been given a world-wide stage to spew their stupidity and idiocy - Palin with her failed vice-presidential candidacy and the racist ranks of the Tea Party, and Jones with this Qu'ran burning and anti-Muslim bigotry.
4. They both take on a populist view, claiming to speak for and to the "average American," all the while laughing and sneering at their followers behind their backs for being too dumb to know when they are being played.
5. They both deny any responsibility or culpability for the consequences of their idiotic remarks, with Palin being uncharacteristically quiet about her "Drill, Baby, Drill" philosophy in the wake of the Gulf oil disaster, and Jones haughtily dismissing any possible danger he may be causing our service men and women in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world where Islam is the dominant religion.
How sad, and how telling of the complete moral bankruptcy of our culture that the most deliberately ignorant and willfully hateful members of our society are the ones who are publicized the most. What immense damage is being done to America's image everywhere in the world when Sarah Palin and Terry Jones are the faces everyone sees and associates with the United States. And lastly, how toxic and poisonous to our own nation and culture when two people can aspire to be the biggest assholes in the entire country, and succeed so well.
Friday, August 6, 2010
The Mosque at Ground Zero
There has been a lot of controversy recently surrounding the proposed building of a mosque a couple of blocks from the site of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. A number of people who lived through the attacks consider it an affront against the memory of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims who lost their lives in the biggest terrorist incident in American history. I tend to think it's quite the opposite.
Now, I will not pretend to understand what a horrendous, terrifying experience it must have been to be in Manhattan during the attack. Nor can I understand how awful it must have been to lose a spouse, a friend, a colleague, a son or daughter in such a horrible fashion. All I understand is how it affected me. The first plane hit the World Trade Center tower at approximately 8:45 am EDT on that fateful Tuesday morning. It was 5:45 am in Phoenix, and my clock radio clicked on at 6 am, as it usually did on a work morning. It was tuned to NPR and they just started talking about some plane that flew into a building in lower Manhattan. I didn't think a lot about it because for some reason I just assumed it was a Cessna or similar small aircraft.
It was not until I made breakfast and sat down in front of the TV to catch up on the news for a couple of minutes, when the full impact of what happened was made clear to me. I sat open-mouthed in shock as the news video came on, and I literally could not move from my couch. It seemed like I was watching a horrible movie or something, it was so surreal and so very hard to comprehend. How could something this awful happen in our country, on such a picture-perfect late summer morning? When the second jet careened into the other tower it dawned on me what an unprecedented, catastrophic tragedy was unfolding before the eyes of the world, and how everyone's lives would never, ever be the same again.
I can't remember being so profoundly affected by any single event; even the shock of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963 was a distant second compared to it. The day turned out to be one of the worst days of my life, and it seemed everyone at work was completely shell-shocked. They even told us we could leave early if we wanted, and since I found it impossible to concentrate on anything, I did leave. But the people in New York that day did not have the option to leave and go somewhere else. They were right in the middle of unimaginable horror and destruction.
The rebuilding of Ground Zero is proceeding, part shrine to the lives lost that day and part tribute to the spirit and resiliency of the American people. It is also a symbol of rebirth, of coming together for a new, better purpose, and of cooperation. In this spirit, I would think it is a good thing for the mosque project to go through, because Muslims were murdered that day, along with Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and practically every other religious group. The fact that Muslim people want to participate in the rebuilding of the area is I think a major sign that the terrorists have indeed failed in their mission to destroy this country and its people.
It is completely wrong to brand every Muslim in the world as a terrorist, just as it would be to categorize every fundamentalist Christian as a deranged, hate-filled murderer just because some of them kill abortion providers. Actually, most of the 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, and yet you don't see people protesting in front of the Saudi embassy or throwing them out of our country. Maybe it has something to do with all the oil they have over there, and how inconvenient it would be to piss them off and have them turn the spigot off. The terrorists of the world thrive on hate and fear - two things which they need above all else to carry out their nefarious schemes and make mighty nations weak. Having a mosque in the area would show the terrorists that Muslims all over the world stand with the other people in this country and against all the fear-mongers, cowards and murderers that seek to spread their toxic hatred all over the world. It is not an insult or affront to those who died that horrible, awful day that has changed everyone's lives permanently, but rather an affirmation that the terrorists will not win, as long as we keep our eyes on the things that connect us all, rather than on the things that drive us apart.
Now, I will not pretend to understand what a horrendous, terrifying experience it must have been to be in Manhattan during the attack. Nor can I understand how awful it must have been to lose a spouse, a friend, a colleague, a son or daughter in such a horrible fashion. All I understand is how it affected me. The first plane hit the World Trade Center tower at approximately 8:45 am EDT on that fateful Tuesday morning. It was 5:45 am in Phoenix, and my clock radio clicked on at 6 am, as it usually did on a work morning. It was tuned to NPR and they just started talking about some plane that flew into a building in lower Manhattan. I didn't think a lot about it because for some reason I just assumed it was a Cessna or similar small aircraft.
It was not until I made breakfast and sat down in front of the TV to catch up on the news for a couple of minutes, when the full impact of what happened was made clear to me. I sat open-mouthed in shock as the news video came on, and I literally could not move from my couch. It seemed like I was watching a horrible movie or something, it was so surreal and so very hard to comprehend. How could something this awful happen in our country, on such a picture-perfect late summer morning? When the second jet careened into the other tower it dawned on me what an unprecedented, catastrophic tragedy was unfolding before the eyes of the world, and how everyone's lives would never, ever be the same again.
I can't remember being so profoundly affected by any single event; even the shock of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963 was a distant second compared to it. The day turned out to be one of the worst days of my life, and it seemed everyone at work was completely shell-shocked. They even told us we could leave early if we wanted, and since I found it impossible to concentrate on anything, I did leave. But the people in New York that day did not have the option to leave and go somewhere else. They were right in the middle of unimaginable horror and destruction.
The rebuilding of Ground Zero is proceeding, part shrine to the lives lost that day and part tribute to the spirit and resiliency of the American people. It is also a symbol of rebirth, of coming together for a new, better purpose, and of cooperation. In this spirit, I would think it is a good thing for the mosque project to go through, because Muslims were murdered that day, along with Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and practically every other religious group. The fact that Muslim people want to participate in the rebuilding of the area is I think a major sign that the terrorists have indeed failed in their mission to destroy this country and its people.
It is completely wrong to brand every Muslim in the world as a terrorist, just as it would be to categorize every fundamentalist Christian as a deranged, hate-filled murderer just because some of them kill abortion providers. Actually, most of the 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, and yet you don't see people protesting in front of the Saudi embassy or throwing them out of our country. Maybe it has something to do with all the oil they have over there, and how inconvenient it would be to piss them off and have them turn the spigot off. The terrorists of the world thrive on hate and fear - two things which they need above all else to carry out their nefarious schemes and make mighty nations weak. Having a mosque in the area would show the terrorists that Muslims all over the world stand with the other people in this country and against all the fear-mongers, cowards and murderers that seek to spread their toxic hatred all over the world. It is not an insult or affront to those who died that horrible, awful day that has changed everyone's lives permanently, but rather an affirmation that the terrorists will not win, as long as we keep our eyes on the things that connect us all, rather than on the things that drive us apart.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Afghan Star
Marvelous story from Afghanistan on the evening news tonight. They have their version of our "American Idol" talent show called "Afghan Star." It is wildly popular over there and millions of people watch it on televisions that were banned a decade ago.
The news story showed lines of male contestants waiting to audition, and like the US version, showed judges wincing in pain at some particularly bad would-be crooner. There were female contestants as well, and one of them showed a lot of promise and kept making it through to the next round. At one televised performance, this young woman did something that shocked the country and left many viewers gasping in disbelief. What did she do?
She danced onstage!
And I'm not talking some wild Beyonce-esque booty-shaking. She just did a sprightly little two-step across the stage in time to her music.
This is something that is apparently so alien and unheard-of in the Islamic culture of Afghanistan that many people were thoroughly scandalized and shaken. Some male viewers reacted badly, saying that she should be stoned or even killed. There have been death threats made to her, and the video showed her tearfully reuniting with her mother and sisters, who were told that she had been killed.
All for dancing on television. This shows the amazing difference in cultures from this side of the world to the other. On this side we are treated to an astonishing flood of body parts and a lot of graphic rump-shaking, boobie-bouncing and hoochey-coocheying all in only several hours of television viewing on most any night of the week. On the other side of the world people freak out when a fully-clothed young woman does a joyful, exuberant dance as part of her performance.
To that brave young woman I say, you go, girl! Dance away, dance your little heart out. Joy is contagious, spread it around as much as you can. Maybe someday soon everyone in your country will be dancing to the music of freedom.
The news story showed lines of male contestants waiting to audition, and like the US version, showed judges wincing in pain at some particularly bad would-be crooner. There were female contestants as well, and one of them showed a lot of promise and kept making it through to the next round. At one televised performance, this young woman did something that shocked the country and left many viewers gasping in disbelief. What did she do?
She danced onstage!
And I'm not talking some wild Beyonce-esque booty-shaking. She just did a sprightly little two-step across the stage in time to her music.
This is something that is apparently so alien and unheard-of in the Islamic culture of Afghanistan that many people were thoroughly scandalized and shaken. Some male viewers reacted badly, saying that she should be stoned or even killed. There have been death threats made to her, and the video showed her tearfully reuniting with her mother and sisters, who were told that she had been killed.
All for dancing on television. This shows the amazing difference in cultures from this side of the world to the other. On this side we are treated to an astonishing flood of body parts and a lot of graphic rump-shaking, boobie-bouncing and hoochey-coocheying all in only several hours of television viewing on most any night of the week. On the other side of the world people freak out when a fully-clothed young woman does a joyful, exuberant dance as part of her performance.
To that brave young woman I say, you go, girl! Dance away, dance your little heart out. Joy is contagious, spread it around as much as you can. Maybe someday soon everyone in your country will be dancing to the music of freedom.
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