September 11
It’s that day. My heart knew it before I did. I woke up this morning with a darkness there, and didn’t understand why until I realized the date. When I said my prayers, I put in lots of extras for the people who died, and the families, and the soldiers and the Iraqi people, and the people who have to make the decisions.
I thought about Todd Beamer and his wife, and his kids. Is it ever going to be good enough to have a daddy who died a hero? From a child’s point of view, I’d have to say no. It would be better to have a daddy. But, oh! What a sacrifice. What an amazing amount of love that took.
So I left for work sad, and what I saw on the way made me even sadder. It’s about 11 miles from home to here. I saw 14 flags, including the two above my college and the one flying over the Fire Department. Why wasn’t there a flag on every single house? How quickly apathy has returned!
Do we understand what it means when the American flag is flying over our Capitol? It means AMERICA IS IN CHARGE. That is why in our National Anthem, Frances Scott Key was so concerned with whether our flag was still there—as long as he could see that it was, he knew the American soldiers had not been defeated.
Why do we have such a hard time comprehending that as Americans we are not immune? Why have the majority of our people not figured out that if Americans had not become so lazy, prideful, and apathetic, people from other countries maybe wouldn’t feel a need to hurt us? We were all so appalled that anyone would dare to trespass on our sacred soil; we were angered more by that than we were by the destruction they brought with them. I’m sorry; I know it’s un-American to say so, but I understand how people can hate us. We say:Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
So countries take us at our word and do that, and we treat them worse here than they were getting in their homelands! We imported Africans and taught our children to hate them. Did we ‘open our arms’ to the world just so we’d have someone to blame? I was a kid when the ‘boat people’ from Vietnam ran to America for refuge; I remember we took in as many as we felt like (enough to make us look good, apparently), and then started turning them away! Where did we expect them to go? Where did they go? What other country in the world has obesity as a health problem worthy of national concern? We relax and eat our doughnuts, and children over the globe die of starvation by the thousands. We write letters to the Editor defending our right to water our lawns, while more thousands die of thirst. We’re more concerned about having our preferred brand of shampoo than we are about people who aren’t even having their survival needs met.
We’re the richest country in the world. Why? Because we’re selfish! And it only gets worse. Look around. We don’t care for our own, let alone anyone else’s. And the thing about that is, we’re still telling the world that once their people come to America, they are our own. The Constitution was written to protect the rights of everyone, citizen and non-citizen, living in The United States. But we don’t live up to it. We announce what we stand for and then don’t stand for it.
Today the Iraqi are the current favorite hate objects. We’ve already gone through the Germans, the Mexicans, the Puerto Ricans, the Vietnamese, the Japanese, how many others? Who will it be tomorrow? What would our forefathers think? I don’t really think this is quite what they had in mind.
And why is it so important to look good to the rest of the world? If we’re the greatest country in the world, do we prove that by telling people or by showing them?
I’ve been watching these trials of the soldiers who were charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and listening to the excuses. The excuses being made by the soldiers themselves, their commanding officers, the spokesmen for their branches of the military, and our country’s leaders, who are apparently trying to gloss it over and find anything to make it look like America was right. Except for America wasn’t right, and I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we just admitted to the rest of the world what they already know anyway: We messed up. It got out of hand. It was wrong and we’re terribly sorry, and we are going to do our very best to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. I don’t care what kind of stress the guards were working under; I don’t care who is the ‘good guy’ and who is the ‘bad guy.’ Those guards are Americans, and the way they conduct themselves is stating loud and clear what Americans are like. So much for making a good impression.
What do you think of when you hear the word, ‘American?’ I know what I think of. I think of what it must have really been like to brave the oceans 200 years ago to find a place where people could have a better life. I think of the determination it took to stay and not give up. I think of how hard the early colonists had to fight for the right to live their lives in freedom. I think of how miserable in must have been at Valley Forge. Oh, we tell the stories of the starving soldiers with rags wrapped around their feet. I try to imagine myself in that place, and know I do not have the fortitude. And George Washington was right there with them! I think about what those people wanted us to be, of what they wanted to leave to their children. And we should feel a duty to try to be what they were, to try to make our decisions based on what they would have done, to look at the values on which our country was founded before we open our mouths to pour hatred upon our neighbors and before we decide we have the right to judge anyone else.
Thank you, God, that I live in a place where I have been given freedom of speech, that it is my perfect right to send what I think out over the cyber-waves. America may not be the greatest country in the world, but it’s better than all the rest of them. I am proud and grateful to live here, and proud and grateful for the people who have given their lives and their own freedom that I may continue to live here. America is a young country compared to most of the rest of the world. I’m not saying we should never make mistakes. We will, just as any growing child will. I’m saying, it’s bigger to admit them and try to do better. The same sort of loving courtesy that works on a person-to-person basis will work on a country-to-country basis. I believe that with all my heart. And I cry for the people who died on this day three years ago, and for the people who thought killing them was the only way to accomplish whatever they were trying to accomplish. I cry for the people left behind, who have had to find a way to go on, and I cry most of all for the ones who have forgotten so soon.
I thought about Todd Beamer and his wife, and his kids. Is it ever going to be good enough to have a daddy who died a hero? From a child’s point of view, I’d have to say no. It would be better to have a daddy. But, oh! What a sacrifice. What an amazing amount of love that took.
So I left for work sad, and what I saw on the way made me even sadder. It’s about 11 miles from home to here. I saw 14 flags, including the two above my college and the one flying over the Fire Department. Why wasn’t there a flag on every single house? How quickly apathy has returned!
Do we understand what it means when the American flag is flying over our Capitol? It means AMERICA IS IN CHARGE. That is why in our National Anthem, Frances Scott Key was so concerned with whether our flag was still there—as long as he could see that it was, he knew the American soldiers had not been defeated.
Why do we have such a hard time comprehending that as Americans we are not immune? Why have the majority of our people not figured out that if Americans had not become so lazy, prideful, and apathetic, people from other countries maybe wouldn’t feel a need to hurt us? We were all so appalled that anyone would dare to trespass on our sacred soil; we were angered more by that than we were by the destruction they brought with them. I’m sorry; I know it’s un-American to say so, but I understand how people can hate us. We say:Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
So countries take us at our word and do that, and we treat them worse here than they were getting in their homelands! We imported Africans and taught our children to hate them. Did we ‘open our arms’ to the world just so we’d have someone to blame? I was a kid when the ‘boat people’ from Vietnam ran to America for refuge; I remember we took in as many as we felt like (enough to make us look good, apparently), and then started turning them away! Where did we expect them to go? Where did they go? What other country in the world has obesity as a health problem worthy of national concern? We relax and eat our doughnuts, and children over the globe die of starvation by the thousands. We write letters to the Editor defending our right to water our lawns, while more thousands die of thirst. We’re more concerned about having our preferred brand of shampoo than we are about people who aren’t even having their survival needs met.
We’re the richest country in the world. Why? Because we’re selfish! And it only gets worse. Look around. We don’t care for our own, let alone anyone else’s. And the thing about that is, we’re still telling the world that once their people come to America, they are our own. The Constitution was written to protect the rights of everyone, citizen and non-citizen, living in The United States. But we don’t live up to it. We announce what we stand for and then don’t stand for it.
Today the Iraqi are the current favorite hate objects. We’ve already gone through the Germans, the Mexicans, the Puerto Ricans, the Vietnamese, the Japanese, how many others? Who will it be tomorrow? What would our forefathers think? I don’t really think this is quite what they had in mind.
And why is it so important to look good to the rest of the world? If we’re the greatest country in the world, do we prove that by telling people or by showing them?
I’ve been watching these trials of the soldiers who were charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and listening to the excuses. The excuses being made by the soldiers themselves, their commanding officers, the spokesmen for their branches of the military, and our country’s leaders, who are apparently trying to gloss it over and find anything to make it look like America was right. Except for America wasn’t right, and I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we just admitted to the rest of the world what they already know anyway: We messed up. It got out of hand. It was wrong and we’re terribly sorry, and we are going to do our very best to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. I don’t care what kind of stress the guards were working under; I don’t care who is the ‘good guy’ and who is the ‘bad guy.’ Those guards are Americans, and the way they conduct themselves is stating loud and clear what Americans are like. So much for making a good impression.
What do you think of when you hear the word, ‘American?’ I know what I think of. I think of what it must have really been like to brave the oceans 200 years ago to find a place where people could have a better life. I think of the determination it took to stay and not give up. I think of how hard the early colonists had to fight for the right to live their lives in freedom. I think of how miserable in must have been at Valley Forge. Oh, we tell the stories of the starving soldiers with rags wrapped around their feet. I try to imagine myself in that place, and know I do not have the fortitude. And George Washington was right there with them! I think about what those people wanted us to be, of what they wanted to leave to their children. And we should feel a duty to try to be what they were, to try to make our decisions based on what they would have done, to look at the values on which our country was founded before we open our mouths to pour hatred upon our neighbors and before we decide we have the right to judge anyone else.
Thank you, God, that I live in a place where I have been given freedom of speech, that it is my perfect right to send what I think out over the cyber-waves. America may not be the greatest country in the world, but it’s better than all the rest of them. I am proud and grateful to live here, and proud and grateful for the people who have given their lives and their own freedom that I may continue to live here. America is a young country compared to most of the rest of the world. I’m not saying we should never make mistakes. We will, just as any growing child will. I’m saying, it’s bigger to admit them and try to do better. The same sort of loving courtesy that works on a person-to-person basis will work on a country-to-country basis. I believe that with all my heart. And I cry for the people who died on this day three years ago, and for the people who thought killing them was the only way to accomplish whatever they were trying to accomplish. I cry for the people left behind, who have had to find a way to go on, and I cry most of all for the ones who have forgotten so soon.
posted by Anonymous at 12:25 PM
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