I grew up closer to NYC than the Giants. I consider myself somewhat of a New Yorker. My brother was living blocks away from the Towers when they fell and I had a hard time trying to find out if he was alive or dead. I had friends and acquaintances who lived and worked in the area and who came to the rescue when the Towers fell. But it has been 11 years now. Can we please move on now?
I understand that this event changed so many people’s lives. Many people died, many more grieved and are still grieving for their dead loved ones. Those who were directly affected have every right to keep grieving. This blog post isn’t about you. It is about everyone else. This is about those who didn’t know anyone who died and were only affected by the political decisions that have followed.
I understand that our tribal sense of patriotism makes us want to turn this tragedy into a chest beating opportunity, but we did that and we are still involved in two wars because we cared more about revenge than we cared about building a better world.
I remember in the days just following 9/11, there were people standing in line giving blood and there were people shouting that this means war. President Bush chose to listen to those calling for war and he picked his favorite target and there we went. But what if we had a President who chose peace? What if the President didn’t go to war and instead took the example of the people standing on line ready to donate blood? What if we chose compassion instead of vengeance?
I know this is an unpopular opinion. People want to believe that we had to fight back against the bad guys, but the fact is that we didn’t. We let the bad guys win by becoming a paranoid nation quick to war and slow to understand. People kept asking, “Why did the terrorists attack us?” The problem is that no one really cared to hear the answer.
It has been 11 years and the “Freedom Tower” isn’t even finished yet. How many soldiers have died because we had to beat our chests? How much global good will has been lost because we cared more about revenge than we did about uniting the world in peace?
I know it is all Bush’s fault… but it wasn’t. Like I said, there were many people beating the war drums before Bush picked his target. In fact, I would say that most Americans wanted blood and few cared whose blood. Sure Bush is to blame, but so are we. We let him do it. We encouraged him. We are still encouraging people like him. When can we move on?
