As I sit here on this Monday morning, sipping a cup of tea, I'm taken back to this same morning, five yeas ago. That's the morning everything changed. For a city, for a country, and for me. What began as yet another day in paradise turned into a journey of anger, fear, disgust and soul searching.
While the American media, this morning, focuses on the human face of this tragedy, there's another aspect often overlooked. This is the morning when a certain innocence was lost. Decades of invincibility came to an end for a nation and its people. While the twin towers may have seemed like ugly monstrosities to most Americans and even some New Yorkers, to the rest of the world they were the ultimate symbol of an idealogy. Towering temples to the human spirit, unleashed through the forces of capitalism to go forth produce its best. An ideology that brought peace and prosperity (and some might say decadence) to almost 300 million people. An ideology that most of the developing world looked up to. They stood proud like lighthouses - shining beacons of hope to billions. Standing in the lobby, or up on the rooftop, one couldn't have felt more safe & secure in these edifices of steel and concrete.
That's why they were brought down. It wasn't a murder of people, but the attempted murder of an ideology. Yes, thousands of people died, but people who focus on that completely miss the point. If the loss of human life is more important, what about the thousands who die of meaningless gun violence every year? What about the thousands who died of AIDS in the 80s as an administration joked about the crisis? What about the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who die every year in Iraq, Darfur, Lebanon, Palestine or Sri Lanka? Does a human life automatically become more important by virtue of being in a certain building on 9/11/01?
What really came down that day was the American spirit - a spirit that gave us the towers in the first place. A spirit so destroyed, that today, five years later, there is no sign of rebuilding. A fraction of the $500 billion that have been spent in Iraq, could have given us, in a couple of years at most, shining new symbols to replace the fallen ones. We would've been redeemed. The world's best architects rushed in with plans to fill the void. Instead, they've been overrun by bean counters concerned about square footage & insurance payouts. People don't want to work on higher floors, they say. Yet, people will happily move to Florida and build homes on former marsh land directly in the path of a hurricane. My alien mind fails to grasp this.
Something else happened on 9/11/01. It brought the entire thinking world together, in solidarity with the American people, in defense of our values of freedom & democracy. Even socialist Parisian newspapers proclaimed "We Are All Americans". Offers of support came pouring in. It was a unique opportunity to put extremism to an end and bring the same peace and prosperity to a neglected part of the world. Instead, I watched as a corrupt administration and an ill-informed population squandered it away. I watched as they sowed the seeds of a new wave of unrest. I watched as they turned on minorities within their own nation. It suddenly turned from a war of economic & social ideologies into a war of straight, white Christians against brown Muslims - and everyone else. Suddenly grandma was being wiretapped, brown people (such as myself) were greeted at the border with sneers and citizens were being lifted out of homes and transported to secret detention camps without trial. A whole new generation witnessed the ugly side of American power.
Since 9/11, I've been struggling to understand and find the true American values that made this nation what it is. I'd like to believe it was "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". However, 9/11 also brought out certain voices that portray a much darker picture. A picture of greed and imperialist oppression dating back to the 19th century. I don't know what to believe anymore. However, I certainly know that I do not identify with the values portrayed on CNN and Fox News.
Politics is an ugly game.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Great post.
We live close to NYC and to this day, it's odd not seeing the towers there. Up until a year before the towers fell, I used to work as an auditor in the World Financial Center. I used to go shopping in the Express in Tower 5 and eat pizza at Sbarros. I remember even taking my Mom over once to show her where I worked, and we spent a nice day there together. When the towers fell, I was already transferred to Jersey office, but my grandmother in Pakistan still thought I worked at World Trade and was hysterical until my Mom called her and told her I wasn't in the tower when it fell. I consider myself very lucky. Others were not. My pregnant cousin and her husband worked there, and they died that day. There is too much hate and violence in this world, and it's a shame that innocent people who have nothing to do with the conflict have to pay the price.
sphinx: totally agree
chic_mommy: sorry about your cousin and her husband. I have lots of fond memories of the WTC too. It was a convenient transit hub & meeting point for everyone. My favorite experience was standing on the catwalk on the rooftop, looking out for miles as helicopters and planes flew BELOW us.
Beautiful post Ameet.
Great post.
Really.
Great.
Post a Comment