Re: I read the news today, oh boy
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:06 pm
I'm going to play Devil's advocate here, and support Eisbreaker, because I understand what he is trying to say.
Though I never experienced any of the trauma myself, my family left Sri Lanka when I was one, after a period where a number of my parent's close friends and idols had been killed due to an army-enforced government crackdown on "communist sympathisers", which included in the vague description a large majority of university students who had voiced opposition to the corruption and manipulative strategies of the government at the time. A soldier once came to my father's house in their search, shortly after my parents got married. Through a great stoke of fortune, the soldier was a former student of my late grandfather, the former headmaster of the local school, and once he saw my grandfather open the door, he could not bring himnself to carry out his orders. If not for that coincidence, I would never have been conceived.
From as far back as I can remember, until I was about 14, my parents would be calling my grandparents back in Sri Lanka after hearing news of a suicide bomb near my grandparents place, either in a shopping mall or a bus or a crowded street. The stress at home would be almost tangible until they finally heard someone pick up the phone on the other end. Even though my grandparents were fortunate to have never been in the wrong place at the wrong time, I couldn't even imagine the grief of the families who didn't receive such fortunate news, or even the people themselves, living in constant fear that a random attack might make this day their last. Parents deciding to take alternate routes home from work so that if one of them died on the way, there was a greater chance one of them would still be left to look after the children.
I understand fully the grief of the many who lost relatives, loved ones, and close friends in the September 11 attacks, but the point remains that this was one just attack, and that it happened ten years ago now. Compared to what some other citiziens of the world have had to face, a number of them due either directly or indirectly to the USA's foreign policies and involvement in international affairs no less, the 9/11 attacks would earn little more than an extended mention on these country's histories. It is perfectly uderstandable to grieve the loss of loved ones, to accept the gravity of the situation and the implications this attack had on the world, but to highlight these attacks so ferociously would feel like an injustice to others who have experienced the other atrocities of the past two decades. It is perfectly acceptable to grieve such losses, but it has been ten years, and now that the US has paid its respects to those lost on this day, I feel it is time its people began to move on from this moment rather than still react to it with a sense of wounded pride.
As others have said, US citizens can no longer feel they are in some protective bubble regarding world affairs. They are a part of what goes on in the world, and this is the main lesson that should be learnt from September 11. Ten years is long enough to start to call of the grieving process and begun doing their bit to prevent further tragedies, rather than react to it.
Though I never experienced any of the trauma myself, my family left Sri Lanka when I was one, after a period where a number of my parent's close friends and idols had been killed due to an army-enforced government crackdown on "communist sympathisers", which included in the vague description a large majority of university students who had voiced opposition to the corruption and manipulative strategies of the government at the time. A soldier once came to my father's house in their search, shortly after my parents got married. Through a great stoke of fortune, the soldier was a former student of my late grandfather, the former headmaster of the local school, and once he saw my grandfather open the door, he could not bring himnself to carry out his orders. If not for that coincidence, I would never have been conceived.
From as far back as I can remember, until I was about 14, my parents would be calling my grandparents back in Sri Lanka after hearing news of a suicide bomb near my grandparents place, either in a shopping mall or a bus or a crowded street. The stress at home would be almost tangible until they finally heard someone pick up the phone on the other end. Even though my grandparents were fortunate to have never been in the wrong place at the wrong time, I couldn't even imagine the grief of the families who didn't receive such fortunate news, or even the people themselves, living in constant fear that a random attack might make this day their last. Parents deciding to take alternate routes home from work so that if one of them died on the way, there was a greater chance one of them would still be left to look after the children.
I understand fully the grief of the many who lost relatives, loved ones, and close friends in the September 11 attacks, but the point remains that this was one just attack, and that it happened ten years ago now. Compared to what some other citiziens of the world have had to face, a number of them due either directly or indirectly to the USA's foreign policies and involvement in international affairs no less, the 9/11 attacks would earn little more than an extended mention on these country's histories. It is perfectly uderstandable to grieve the loss of loved ones, to accept the gravity of the situation and the implications this attack had on the world, but to highlight these attacks so ferociously would feel like an injustice to others who have experienced the other atrocities of the past two decades. It is perfectly acceptable to grieve such losses, but it has been ten years, and now that the US has paid its respects to those lost on this day, I feel it is time its people began to move on from this moment rather than still react to it with a sense of wounded pride.
As others have said, US citizens can no longer feel they are in some protective bubble regarding world affairs. They are a part of what goes on in the world, and this is the main lesson that should be learnt from September 11. Ten years is long enough to start to call of the grieving process and begun doing their bit to prevent further tragedies, rather than react to it.
