9/11 Remembered, three years later

.8181818181818181818181818181818181818181818181818... That is 9/11 -- Not very memorable.

September 11th, 2001... very memorable.

I will never understand the American (human?) need to boil everything down to something short. You see, "Terrorist bombings on American soil which claimed the lives of over 3000 people spread over 3 states, and introduced Americans into the reality of terrorism on September 11th, 2001." is a bit of a mouthful, don’t you agree?

Still, I remember where I was and at that time my main concern was that I couldn’t drive home to play Everquest (I was still really depressed and looking out only for me), but instead, after Calculus myself and a few other friends walked to a friend's apartment and watched the news until traffic around MCC had died down. Then I drove home and played EQ and watched the news.

No one I know died in Pennsylvania, New York City, or Washington DC, but I know people who knew people who died...

In my opinion it was a provoked attack. You can’t play "world’s cop" without pissing people off! Finally, it seems, American arrogance was met with force on our own front door. Sure, it was tragic, yes, the people killed were likely innocents. No I sure as hell do not condone killing civilians. However, I can’t help but feel like America had its hand slapped.

And so, life goes on. Politicians twist the event into a call to war. Citizens twist the event into a silly call to patriotism (as if it makes any sense to be loyal to a piece of land). The media hypes the event ("Imagine the ratings!"). The conspiracy theorists make theories. People point fingers. Life goes on.

Except for a few thousand.

I know that the world is told to believe that Al Queda was responsible for flying planes into the buildings and the ground, but I feel that the idea of "Cause and Effect" plays here. Who caused it? America playing God in a region that didn’t want our intervention? America for backing Israel? Or was the attack itself the cause and our reaction the effect? We’ll never know for sure.

Certainly the lack of security in the airports lends credence to the conspiracy theories that some government agency hijacked the planes and flew them into buildings to create a cause to go to war and install puppets in Afghanistan and Iraq and wherever else we (America) now targets as an "Axis of Evil" member. But I find it hard to believe that people are THAT corrupt!

What do I think happened on September 11th, 2001? Ultimately I believe 20 men planned to split up into four groups and fly planes into buildings. However only 19 men made it to their final resting place. I think Americans had a wakeup call placed at 9am: Terrorism doesn’t happen over there. It can happen anywhere; It can happen here.

What has changed? The first thing I noticed was airport security. My father and I flew to Arizona in December 2001. I accidentally forgot to take my small pocket knife out and so I asked my dad to put it into his change purse. And so, on a flight across the country I had a small pocket knife -- with a dull 1.5" blade safely tucked in the very bottom of my luggage. Needless to say that on the way back it was in my checked bags!!

The "Patriot Act" is new. To be honest I don’t know too much about it. Apparently it lets government people do things that would have previously been unconstitutional under the first ten Amendments.

And, of course, our President Bush went to war over it. The war he started is very controversial; I think he lied about the reasons. I think he and his business partners went to war for money and to finish up in IRAQ where his father left off. To date over 1000 soldiers have died for it. Noted documentarian Michael Moore made a documentary about the war, Fahrenheit 9/11. A very excellent movie which connects links which may or may not have a bearing on the Bush family and the war and his presidency.

As for ME personally the only thing that changed is that I am now much more jaded to politics and the media. Probably more liberal -- at least as a result of the socio-political changes since 9/11/01, more jaded to religion and society.

I guess only history will be able to tell the true effect from -- or cause of -- the attacks. But as someone who is in that history I have to say it was a defining point in American history and one that will be "remembered" each year for many years... until it becomes a remembrance every 5 years, then every 10, then ever 15, 25, etc, like happened with WW1, WW2, John Kennedy's assassination, etc.

The point of this musing is to show how 9/11 affected me personally. It is not written to place blame or assume who did what. What I wrote is my opinion and it's really biased by how I saw the events and how I see the world.

I can understand the United States feeling obligated to help out around the world, however they must realise that there are reprocussions of helping people. Is the reprocussions of our foreign aid and intervention worth it? Maybe; Yes; No; depending on who you ask.