Posted by Helen on: 09.11.2006 /
I read this yesterday:
There are dozens of children like Gabi Jacobs, born to Sept. 11 widows in the months after the attacks. Five years later, as they approach kindergarten, they are just beginning to grasp the stories of their fathers and of the day that changed their lives forever.
It’s an excerpt from 9/11 babies asking about missing dads
Share whatever you’d like to share, in view of today being the fifth anniversary of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on the US.
Comment by: Paul
1 09/11/06 7:43 AM | Comment Link |Still way to big for me to process other than with tears, prayers for those kids, and all who find someome missing in their lives and many a question as to why God…
Comment by: Helen
2 09/11/06 11:45 AM | Comment Link |Thanks Paul…I love how you care.
Comment by: lisa w
3 09/11/06 2:27 PM | Comment Link |I hate this day.
It reminds me how children and great elders seem to get it and the rest of humanity keeps on blowing itself up and justifying it….
leaving children in the wake asking questions we can’t answer very well.
Very frustrating.
Is there room on that Space Station? A pan of brownies and a seat on the Space Station would help right now.
I hate this day.
Comment by: jim
4 09/11/06 3:09 PM | Comment Link |My intrigue with history causes me to be somewhat removed from this on a personal basis (and also because I didnt lose anyone close to me)
History is very unforgiving expecially to a people (like Americans) who are accustomed to feeling “special and important”. We take for granted that each of us are unique individuals. We resist the notion of being another number or casualty the way say we think when we read about 200,000 chinese dying in an earthquake while re drink a latte.
In many ways 9/11 was our initiation into the kind of suffering people in Asia and Africa have been familiar with for centuries if not millenia. It’s impossible to remove ourselves from the personal pain and cost but to be honest I never or rarely think about that when I hear that 100,000 Iraquis have died. I don’t think about their families or where they were when their dad was killed because he “happened” to be driving by when a fire fight broke out or an IED went off.
I couldn;t watch all of United Flight 93 because it made me feel the powerlessness they felt and I just got mad. So I get the personal connection but until we learn that powerful people (usually men)start and maintain wars by moving the focus as quickly as possible from politics (oil and money) to the personal( my friend got offed by you and now I will retaliate) we will continue to fall into the trap they set for us.
Thats what I think about when I think about 9/11
Comment by: Doreen
5 09/11/06 3:34 PM | Comment Link |What I think about the 5th anniversary is that it is no more and no less significant than the 2nd or 9th or 15th anniversary.
I vowed last Fri. not to watch CNN or any news channels until tomorrow (Tues.).
I think about my friend who lost a cousin and how her brother, a state trooper in PA, was one of the 1st to the scene of the PA crash.
I think about how our government is still so arrogant.
A very “right side” politically acquaintance recently passed an “urban legends” email that was anti-Iraqui. She asked why people come to this country & question how we do things, why don’t they just go back to their country?
I replied at least they only question with words. Our method of questioning how they do things in other countries is to take bombs and guns and tanks in and blow people up.
doreen
Comment by: JG
6 09/11/06 3:52 PM | Comment Link |The numbers involved in 9/11 are small compared with events elsewhere in the world past and present and each and every human life is uniquely valuable.
But there is something profoundly shocking about two passenger airplanes being deliberately flown into a a tower block or twin tower block and this is profoundly shocking whether it occurs in the US, Asia or Africa or wherever. So far as I am aware there has been no other event like it.
One aspect of why it is so shocking is the pure senseless of the act - the apparently pure desire to simply kill as many innocent civilians as possible out of sheer hatred of Americans.
When I think of 9/11, particularly today, on the fifth anniversary, I simply feel great sadness that such a thing could happen - regardless of where it took place or who the victims were.
Comment by: Rachel
7 09/11/06 4:27 PM | Comment Link |When I think about 9/11, I remember the shock and sadness we all felt and I continue to grieve for the families of the 3000 people we lost. But I cannot help thinking also that 30,000 children die every single day of starvation and preventable disease. Ten times as many as we lost on 9/11 every single day. That’s nearly 11 million children a year. Almost 56 million children have died in the five years since those terrible attacks on America.
I can’t help asking myself if we value their lives as much as we value the lives of our own citizens. The answer seems obvious. So today I grieve over the lives that Americans honor and remember but I also grieve over those we have forgotten. Three hundred billion dollars for war while little children die for lack of food. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”
Comment by: David H
8 09/11/06 6:51 PM | Comment Link |As an editor at a large NY area daily newspaper I remember having to look at the horrible shocking pictures from Sept. 11. My job required that I not turn away. I remember each day as the death toll changed, going up and down so many times that it was hard for it to seem real or even about real people. I remember our effort to find the pictures and the stories for each of the dead in an effort to keep them from just being nameless faceless statistics. We also did in depth stories about the widows and children of two who died there, bringing me fresh and personal horror as I imagined having my own family having to deal with such grief while fighting mountains or red tape to have enough money to pay the bills. Also, a close colleague had his wife in the AmEX building when the planes struck. He lost contact with her with the towers fell because most of the cell nodes for lower Manhattan were on the top of the World Trade Center. A man who had never spoken a word to me about religion or faith, he called and asked me to pray for his family.
The 9/11 attacks were huge and horrifying. The nation and its people were unprepared in almost every way for such an unprecedented attack.
However, when I think back I also remember a picture I handled from Iraq. It was shot a few days after the invasion. Fighting was underway in and around Basra, a city in the south of the country. The picture was of a man, not much older than myself, holding the hands of two girls, about the same ages as my daughters. The were running across the bridge leading out of Basra. Black smoke plumed in the far background. They had just run past a destroyed Iraqi tank. The fear in the eyes of the youngest girl was palpable. The story said they had gone a few days without food or water, trapped inside their home while fighting raged around the city. Finally the father decided it was more dangerous to stay then to leave. They had no idea where they were going, not a clue where “safety” could be found. But he knew that if they remained in their home they would probably die.
For those people, the invasion was huge and horrifying. What has transpired there has shown that neither their government nor ours was prepared for such an unprecedented event. I wept for that scared Iraqi family as much as for the families I read about that had lost loved ones on Sept. 11.
That last thing that has stuck with me about Sept. 11 is something said by Irish rock-star Bono Vox. He has repeatedly pointed out that more than twice the number of people who were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks die every day in Africa from a largely preventable disease. We in the west, particularly in America, have largely ignored that growing mountain of bodies. If the events of 9/11 were so horrifying that they are still today rippling out through American (and world) society in countless ways, how can Americans be predominantly unaffected by the monumental tragedy of AIDS in Africa? How can our government be almost silent (until this year) on the latter, while spending billions for a multi-front war sparked by the former? The AIDS epidemic in Africa is huge and horrifying. It is unprecedented in the history of the world. And the people who are dying — men, women and children — aren’t much different than Americans. They have faces, they have families, and those that die leave insurmountable financial burdens for the loved ones who live.
The greatest similarity between the people of America and Iraq and Africa is in the suffering. For the people caught in the midst of these tragedies the pain is personal. Each loss felt is of someone irreplaceable. Each surviving life is stretched and diminished in similar ways. All of these deaths are completely different and all are the exactly the same. Most important, none should be viewed as any less important than any other. If there is a God who loves one, he loves them all alike. Any who claim to believe in that God must do likewise or make a lie of their faith.
Comment by: Helen
9 09/12/06 4:26 AM | Comment Link |David, Rachel and Jim, I appreciate your comments about 9/11 suffering as compared with other suffering around the world.
The 9/11 suffering is very real. But why doesn’t the reality and depth of it lead Westerners more readily into thinking about how real other suffering around the world is, motivating us to help people around the world suffer less, to the extent we can?
Comment by: Helen
10 09/12/06 4:28 AM | Comment Link |Lisa, I’m on my way - save me some brownies!
Comment by: Helen
11 09/12/06 4:32 AM | Comment Link |Doreen - I hear you.
Comment by: jim
12 09/12/06 9:25 AM | Comment Link |Dave- very beautifully written insights
“Most important, none should be viewed as any less important than any other. If there is a God who loves one, he loves them all alike. Any who claim to believe in that God must do likewise or make a lie of their faith.”
Comment by: Eliza
13 09/12/06 5:04 PM | Comment Link |9/11 was horrifying as an event of mass murder carried out by people against people. It packs more of a punch for many of us than do the more numerous deaths which occur from disease or even disaster, in part due to the sudden, unexpected nature and in part due to the human cause. (And, yes, in this country especially, because it happened here.) I am also horrified by the havoc our country has wrought by its response, conceived in blood lust. While the casualty count among US soldiers is still (barely) below the death count from the terrorist actions on 9/11, many-fold more Iraqi citizens have died than the 9/11 death toll, and there’s no end in sight. This was the response of a “developed” country?
Yesterday I learned about another important event which occurred on 9/11, 100 years ago, from a letter to the editor in our local paper. Here are details from Wikipedia’s entry on Mahatma (Mohandas) Ghandi,
Comment by: JG
14 09/13/06 12:59 AM | Comment Link |Eliza, I agree and it saddens me that this aspect seems to often get overlooked.
One other aspect to this is the effect any death, incident, atrocity etc has on others. This is not saying any one life is more valuable than others but that some deaths have greater impact on others.
When someone dies in their 70’s, 80’s or 90’s it is sad. If they die eg of stomach cancer (eg my father in law) then it can be particularly harrowing.
If someone dies young, it is much harder eg my cousin from leukemia at 14.
If it is someone well known and well liked like Princess Diana or Jill Dando (TV presenter murdered a few years ago in UK) then it does “shock” the nation.
But I think its when something happens to a large number of ordinary people going about their normal business then you get the greatest “shock” - such as football tragedies like Hillsborough, Bradford and Heysel where large numbers of football fans die whilst simply attending a football match. But more so when it is a deliberate act rather than unfortunate chance - such as 9/11 or the tube bombings here in the UK.
I believe the main object of a terrorist act is not so much the killing of certain people but rather the “terror” they hope to inflict on the rest of the population. In this sense, the threat of a terrorist act can be as successful as a terrorist act because of the effect it has such as the increased airport security with all the problems that causes (eg for Helen’s Dad).
In the west I think we do take life, comfort etc etc way too much for granted. None of us can be sure we will still be here this time tomorrow. Whilst this can and does rob people of peace of mind it can have the beneficial result of making them think more deeply about what life is all about and what they want to do with their life.
I think it is a great mistake to try to diminish the importance of 9/11 by saying that much greater numbers of people are dying all the time around the world. It was a very significant event and it has led to very serious consequences, not least for ordinary Iraqi citizens who are suffering so greatly now in Iraq as Eliza points out (if we accept that war in Iraq is the consequence of 9/11 rather than of various things including but not only 9/11).
I also think it a mistake to assume motives for actions in the absence of clear motives. I think it is more useful to take an objective view of US/UK action in Iraq rather than to subjectively attack motives and intentions.
It appears to be that Saddam caused great suffering to ordinary Iraqi citizens and there was a very strong case for removing him. Whether it was right for the US to remove him by military force is a different matter. But objectively, it has to be asked, is the ordinary Iraqi citizen better off or worse off now that Saddam has gone? It appears to me that there is now greater suffering, greater anarchy and greater loss of life than during his regime. Which then suggests that by removing a lesser evil, a greater evil has been created.
We need to remember that most loss of life in Iraq is the murder of Iraqi citizens by fellow Iraqi citizens (or perhaps foreigners who have gone to “fight the cause”), it is a civil war. This does not lessen US/UK responsibility as they created the conditions in which such a civil war could flourish.
Even if we accept it was right to remove him by military action, what should have happened was susbtantial investment and aid to help restore the country immediately after the military action. I also believe it is a huge mistake to believe that “western democracy” is the answer. It was western democracy that brought Hitler to power.
Comment by: JG
15 09/13/06 1:59 AM | Comment Link |Thinking of 9/11 has brought to mind the fact that many more innocent people lost their lives in Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped in 1945 than in 9/11.
But would there have been even greater loss of life if the bombs had not been dropped, as a result of ongoing war with Japan?
I also think of Rwanda where there was tremendous loss of life in a very short period of time with neighbours turing upon neighbours with machettes. I’ve been greatly encouraged to hear of the work going on in Rwanda to help rebuild that country.
Comment by: David H
16 09/13/06 12:14 PM | Comment Link |I found Eliza’s post about Ghandi particularly interesting. I am a pacifist and frequently find myself telling others that I oppose all war, not just the war in Iraq. I have had many consevative Christians respond by asking: “What would you have the nation do then, just roll over and die?” I tell them I wouldn’t pretend to tell he nation what to do, but I believe Jesus made it very clear what his followers should be doing. My position, I discover, is very similar to Ghandi’s. I believe that the job of the Christian is to speak the truth and then live with the consequences. A book I read last year by a Mennonite pastor, explained the “consqeuences” this way —
The book is “Threatened with Resurrection” by Jim Amstutz.
While I certainly have issues with the nature of US involvement in Iraq, I have a much bigger problem with Christians who support that war because it will afford us or this nation some measure of safety. Neither this nation or our political system can claim any belief about Jesus. But those who call themselves Christian are supposed to believe that Jesus is not only the guidepost for this life, but the assurance of something more when this life is over. If they truly believe then they shouldn’t need the protection of presidents or armies or weapons of mass destruction. They should be willing to non-violently protest any injustice, whether done by a foreign despot or a domestic one with certain knowledge of the outcome.
A band I like put it this way in a song:
Comment by: David H
17 09/13/06 1:41 PM | Comment Link |Yesterday on NPR’s Diane Rhem show I heard a discussion regarding non-violence with the author of a new book. Mark Kurlansky wrote “Nonviolence: The history of a dangerous idea.”
Kurlansky cited some examples of successful non-violence and even posited that non-violence was winning the American Revolution, but some of the founding fathers got impatinet with the pace forced by that tack.
Diane Rehm then asked if he believed even WWII was wrong and should not have been fought, citing Hitler’s efforts to extend Germanhegemony over the entire world and his brutal treatment of Jews and other “undesireables.”
Kurlansky pointed out that the US entered the war in 1941 only after being directly attacked by a German ally. Hitler was elected German chancellor in 1933. Hitler not only came to power through democracy, but with support from many foreign nations including the US. The nations of the world had six years before Hitler invaded Poland to control the situation through non-violent means. Christians inside Germany and around the globe had the opportunity to voice opposition to the policies that were adopted, such as prejudical practices against Jews and other undesirables. Instead, for a variety of reasons, the vast majority of nations and their people either ignored or endorsed most of what Hitler was doing.
Kurlansky is not unique in saying that WWII was not inevitable. However, the time to avoid the war was long gone by the time he Wermacht invaded Poland.
I have heard the same arguments about Iraq in terms of what we should do now. The answer is largely the same, it is a little later to say I don’t want to get wet when you are neck-deep in a bloodbath. The choices have so narrowed that there might not be any good ones.
A side note on Japan: Many historians have noted that the Japanese military and royalty were ready to surrender before the US dropped the first atomic bomb, but were seeking an honorable method. There is also supposition that even dropping such a bomb at sea off the coast of Japan would have sufficiently frightened the Japanese into capitulation. The consensus among historians seems to be that there were a host of largely political reasons why it was decided to drop an atom bomb. Why a second was necessary is open to an even greater number of theories. The only official explanation was that Japan was given three days between the two bombs in which to surrender. Since they didn’t, the second bomb was required.
But the bottom line, by most current estimations, is that neither atomic bombs nor bloody invasions were necessary to end the war with Japan. With the entrance of the Soviet Union into the Pacific war, the surrender of its Axis partner, with its lack of any available oil fields to fuel ships and planes, and with its limited population Japan would eventually have had to surrender (especially if the island nation was choked with a naval blockade).
Supporting info: ; ;
Comment by: David H
18 09/13/06 1:52 PM | Comment Link |Apparently I’m not handy with inserting links. Here is another go for supporting docs:
- Global Security
- Truman documentsistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/fulltext.php?fulltextid=26″>
- Nuclear timeline
Comment by: JG
19 09/13/06 4:36 PM | Comment Link |David H,
Thanks for your comments.
The full link for the Truman documents is:
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/fulltext.php?fulltextid=26?>
Comment by: David H
20 09/14/06 11:21 AM | Comment Link |My apologies, something about the urls and attempting to embed links totally hosed my browser.