never forget

Maybe because its the 10yr anniversary. maybe because Osama bin laden was brought to justice this year. maybe because death, and near-death experiences, had been on my mind particularly much this past week. I'm not sure but for some reason, this 9/11 felt a bit different from the rest. 


10 years ago, benjamin netanyahu, former and future prime minister of Israel, after what had been the most shocking, surprising and devastating attack on the US on US soil (at least of my lifetime), declared: "Today, we are all americans - in grief, as in defiance" Many around the world would go on to echo that sentiment, including the influential french (yes, french!) newspaper, le monde. but what does this seemingly hyperbolic sentiment really mean? Was it simply europe standing by its long lost brother in a sign of profound solidarity, the same way the US had stood by it in 1962 when JFK declared himself a Berliner? maybe. i'm not sure. but i can remember at the time, in the fall of 2001, it felt good to know that america was not alone. others would rally behind it in a time of mourning, of grief, of loss, and of pain. 


10 years ago, i remember being shocked and horrified, more so speechless, at the sight of the towers collapsing live on television. in tears of God-knows-what as friends and classmates tried desperately, and mostly unsuccessfully, to reach loved ones in and around new york. i remember the following day, trying desperately to think of what good could come out of this. would the country rally together like we've never seen before, the way schools *almost* rallied together after columbine? would the country use this as a way to reach out to foreigners and those of other faiths and embrace them in the way the country was built to do? or would it bar down its doors, live in fear and isolation, reach new levels of intolerance?


10 years ago, i remember discussing this with my friends, lecturers and family. no one had the answer, but everyone wondered the same thing. there were so many directions to take, and we only hoped the country would take the right one. not content to wait for someone to tell us what to do, we began to conjure up ideas of how we would remember this moment. as someone too-conservative-for-my-liberal-friends and too-liberal-for-my-conservative-friends, i decided an appropriate response would be one of tolerance and love, giving back in any way we can. i campaigned for and advocated teach for america, peace corps, missions work...anything to show that while some may despise the way america does business, the genuineness and philanthropy of americans cannot be denied.


10 years ago, i, and many of my friends, felt what the new york times described as a "heartfelt desire to be changed", to change things. we wanted to be called on to do more for our country, to make this "senseless horror count for something....there was courage and unity on the streets of the city and all across the country". truly, on september 12, this feeling of unity was felt around the world. 

so maybe, that was what netanyahu and many others meant by "we are all americans"? that the world was unified with americans. not simply that, but perhaps, also, the world was at a turning point, ready to be changed. ready to embrace the change that was apparent on september 12. the bombings of 9/11 affected more than just americans. 372 is the number of those that lost their lives in the trade towers who were not americans. the wars that followed 9/11, the bombings, the attacks, the fighting made this a global fight on all corners of the world. it wasn't long before my family would feel the effects of 9/11. because we are all americans, my uncle, my nigerian uncle, chose to join the US army. he was sent to afghanistan shortly after. leaving behind a daughter and pregnant wife, he went to serve a strange country, yet one he believed in, this time in iraq. now, he's in north korea, still serving this country, because we are all americans.

uncle serves as an example of how we wanted to remember and commemorate 9/11. ready to leave his family behind to serve a cause greater than himself. to show others in his unit and across the globe that americans can be a force for good. he didnt go to war to kill. he went to serve. one of the most humble people i know, he went to counsel, to teach, to work, to defend and to learn. politics aside, there are lessons to be learned from this attack, just like there are lessons to be learned in any act of violence or terrorism. i just hope its not too late.

"may God bless the memories of those we lost"

post-post: i was overwhelmed to the point of numbness with the coverage of the 10th anniversary. I sat glued to the cnn and al jazeera, with my laptop on my lap shifting from the new york times to cnn.com to pretty much anything else i could find. so i share some with you:

My Unfinished Business: Keller, a news writer, turned opinion editor, turned executive editor recounts his and other journalists' defense of the defenseless war in Iraq and questions what he would/could have done differently.

Loss and Hope: Remebering life on September 12.

The 9/11 Decade: The most complete, indepth and surprisingly fairly balanced coverage of the 10th anniversay. Al Jazeera is on a league of its own! 

Portraits of a Changed America: Perhaps this should be portraits of a changed world. One could argue it needs to include photos of atrocities caused by american troops in the world after 9/11. Also a good story:  http://us.cnn.com/2011/US/09/10/911.changed.america/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

osama dies. so what?

 by now, i'm sure you've all heard "the news". i was awakened this morning by a friend who simply texted: "they finally got the man"! in a frantic panic, not knowing which "the man" he was referring to, I quickly checked my sources while texting back for further clarification. anyway, needless to say, it was no cause for real alarm. nonetheless it was big news. really big. but how big really? and whats the significance? obviously the significance to US politicians - obama's struggling image particularly - as well as the victims of 9/11 and those they left behind is huge. but is there any significance of this to me?

although no longer living in the states, i was around during 9/11 and the aftermath(s). with that i fully expected to feel something - anything - with this news. but to my surprise, i felt very little if anything at first. no big relief. no celebratory mood. no urgency to call family and friends. almost nothing. i think i was a little relieved that one of the more dangerous terrorists, one who cared little for human life, had been removed from the face of the earth. but it was an uneasy relief. knowing full well, this is was and is not a one man show. he leaves behind a whole army of young and old that follow his philosophy and values. he leaves behind a legacy followed, explicitly or implicitly, by countless political and religious leaders and millions of youth. i would love for his death to mean that that philosophy had received a serious blow to the nuts which would disable it from any thoughts of reproduction. but i would also like to believe that i will wake up tomorrow a multi-billionaire.

as i drove around today, i wondered why i hadnt felt the way i thought i should have. and i think it finally clicked. as with many emotional points of my life, i had somehow found a place to shove the memories of 9/11 and refused to let them out to surface. as i began to allow these thoughts to resurface, my mind went straight to the morning of 9/11. as i was leaving my dorm room for class that morning, i caught a glimpse, in the common room, of the same picture above of the twin towers being brought down. these images were played nonstop throughout the day. i remember my class that morning was one called "Present moral problems"- a modern philosophy course where we debated current and pressing issues that seldom had a right and wrong. that morning, no one knew what was going on, so the lecturer tried having a normal class, but quickly sent us out as people became more frantic. i remember speaking to friends from new york who couldn't reach their families on the phone to find out if they were alright. i remember comforting friends and classmates (i'm actually not sure what i said or couldve said in that situation). I remember the entire school gathering on the quad and holding candles and praying for those who lost their lives and whose families had been affected. forever. in a moment like no other -  a moment of solidarity and togetherness - i had never felt more american (with or without papers!). you sensed a feeling that we were in this together. we had a common enemy and that day, as the french president proclaimed, "we are all americans".

these thoughts remained with me for quite some time. i wanted revenge as much as i wanted justice; i wanted consolation for those who were left behind as much as i wanted those taken to rest in peace. i wanted a rebuilding of american values and identity as much as a tearing down of the hate and institutions that had propelled the terrorists.

those perhaps europhic feelings didn't last long as people went back to their normal lives, heeding the foolhearted advice of the foolhearted president who told us to simply "go shopping". columbine was supposed to unite schools against violence and teach students the values of acceptance and tolerance. it was supposed to open the eyes of teacher, student and administrator. it was supposed to entrench the words of mandela: never again! it fell far short of that. 9/11 was supposed to unite americans against violence and terrorism and teach to all the values of religious tolerance and the true meaning of being an american. it was supposed to be a moment when we all starred fear, injustice, hatred, intolerance, religious slavery with bold eyes and proclaim: never again! it again fell far short of that.

so as i thought more of the events today. i did eventually start to feel something. as the memories resurfaced, i couldn't help the chocking up that ultimately materialised. the memories of friends concerned for loved ones. of mates from new york recalling stories of near misses. of images of everyday heroes and heroines joining in the rubble of the twin towers to assist any way they could. i couldn't help but think: is this another opportunity to learn our lessons? if so, what lessons this time? i argue that we should strive to learn the same forgotten lessons of 10 years back. that we strive to shun violence and fundamentalism at its core. that we seek tolerance - in politics, in religion, in 'race', in thought, and otherwise. that we seek to find what unites us rather than scrape at what divides us. [i can start by replacing the "we" with an "I", i guess...] is that too much too hope for? i'm re-learning how to hope these days, but even I think it might be...


post-post: for more info about how 'the news' might impact the US, middle east, war on terror, etc...read Mr. Kristoff.