9/11

I’ll probably get a lot of flak about this, but so be it.

The fact is, we are all family, more alike than different. As such, we may love our family but still find it necessary to ask the tough questions and adjust our path for the best possible outcome going forward.

The same holds true for our country itself.

Yes, of course we should remember and honor those innocent victims who died on 9/11. It was a terrifying and totally unexpected tragedy. And talk about heroes! That sucker punch spawned endless stories of incredible heroism. Selfless and intentional. Police, firefighters and civilians knowingly put themselves in harm’s way as they chose to risk their own lives to help others, mostly people they had never even met before. We can, and should be, very proud of that behavior.

Certainly the attack was a wake-up call for America. We all watched in horror, and realized it can happen to us too. Right here in the good ole USA.

All true, but the one thing, the most important thing, we didn’t do in the middle of all that lust for revenge, was to question why. Why did this happen? What could we have done to make someone want to hurt us like this?

We don’t want to ask the uncomfortable questions. We shy away from the hard work of honest self-evaluation. It’s always so much easier to start with a given that we are the good guys, unfairly attacked by some very bad people, and react to that.

But haven’t we been bombing other countries and breeding terrorists around the world for a very long time? Of course we have. What are the repercussions to that behavior? Does it make sense that we automatically point fingers of blame, without ever stopping to consider that we may somehow be complicit? Did our past behavior on the world stage light this fire? We’re so quick to act when we are the victims for a change, as with 911, and it doesn’t even matter if we fail to identify the actual terrorists responsible. Any Middle Easterners will do. We start wars just to appease our need for revenge. “We’ll show them who’s boss! “Toby Keith sings “we’ll put up boot up their ass it’s the American way“ Sadly true, and it feels so good to do it that we are not all that particular which ass we put our boot up.

We do it because we can.

I know without question that if someone came into my town, dropped a bomb on my house and murdered my family, I would dedicate the remainder of my life to getting revenge. I would want to get them back with no regard for who gets hurt. Women, children, whatever.

That’s how hate works.

Wouldn’t you?

The same is true for our country that is true for us as individuals: the good news and bad news is that the person(s) most responsible for the course of our lives, is the man in the mirror.

There are repercussions for the murder and destruction we routinely dish out around the world, perhaps it’s time that we adjust our path going forward.

Today, 9/11, I hope we will all give honor and respect to those who died by looking inward for the answers to: “Why did this happen?” and “What can we do to prevent it from happening again?”

Here’s a list of US/Bombing campaigns since 1945
China 1945-46, Korea 1950-53, China 1950-53, Guatemala 1954, Indonesia 1958, Cuba 1959-60
Guatemala 1960, Belgian Congo 1964, Guatemala 1964, Dominican Republic 1965-66, Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73, Vietnam 1961-73, Cambodia 1969-70, Guatemala 1967-69, Lebanon 1982-84
Grenada 1983-84, Libya 1986, El Salvador 1981-92, Nicaragua 1981-90, Iran 1987-88
Libya 1989, Panama 1989-90, Iraq 1991, Kuwait 1991, Somalia 1992-94, Bosnia 1995, Iran 1998
Sudan 1998, Afghanistan 1998, Yugoslavia – Serbia 1999, Afghanistan 2001, Libya 2011

Post 2011: Syria, The Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya

hmh

Reflections...

Every day, I am reminded of how at odds I feel with much of the culture we live in. Don't offer me tickets to the Magic Kingdom, I'm not going. Most things Disney, Kardashian, Vegas, mainstream TV, crowds large and small...cause me to feel bad...about all of us. The things we aspire to; the things we wait in line for. I have no “Midnight Madness Sale” bug nor any interest in the contents of the local mall. My eyes glaze over when you start talking about the big game. Politicians won't see me at any of their rallys, nor will I be in the congregation of any priest, reverend or guru claiming insider information while passing the plate. For me, Eddie Arnold, handed down the boring gene to George Straight who gave it to Allen Jackson who helped spawn the majority of the country pop artists on any mainstream radio today. Most of it a big yawn. Put on some Steve Earle or Lucinda Williams for me. Something with a bite. Please don't make me live in a “planned community” where my McMansion is a clone of every other house on the block and to which I sadly tie my identity, even though it is actually owned by Bank of America.

Misplaced priorities and the pursuit of mediocrity rule too routinely.

Yet we are more alike than different. We strut our uniqueness while embracing the sameness. It’s one color instead of another, this undisguisable from that, beyond the thinnest veneer.

As I think about such things, I remember the Carl Jung quote Carla mentioned to me which I’m unable to shake: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

I wish I could hide from its truth and escape my own harsh judgements in the mirror.