Today, I realize, is September 11th. I feel like I should post something relevant to this being the ninth anniversary of the attacks, but I can't figure out exactly what would even be relevant. I remember what it was like when everything happened; I was young, I didn't understand what was occurring, but I knew that something had happened. The grief was so palpable, followed by what I sensed was some kind of national bonding, a lot of compassion, a lot of outpouring of respect even from the most cynical. I'm not incredibly patriotic, in the sense that I'm not some blind, flag-wielding nationalist, but I don't think the way people felt was mere patriotism -- it was more about compassionate responses to human loss, and a reassessment of what freedom means. And I don't mean that in like a country-music-station, taking-a-gun-into-a-bar-in-Tennessee-just-because-I-can kind of way. I like having the freedom to criticize people in charge and policies I don't like and general hypocrisy in the media, to have whatever opinion I want about the nation's predominant religion(s), to (theoretically) be eligible for whatever school or job I want. Yes, it's self-interest in the most Madisonian terms, but it's also humanistic (and it's basically my version of what Jon Stewart said on The Daily Show on September 20, 2001 -- except everything he said was heartfelt and brilliant and beautiful). So that's what I've been thinking about in regards to the day's date, just what things were like nine years ago.
Because I don't really know what matters now. Less than two years later, the U.S. invaded Iraq on the terms of finding WMDs (there weren't any) and al-Quida (who weren't secretly harbored there) and eventually turning into a dictator-overthrowing, "democracy-spreading" mission in futility ignoring the importance of the Shi'ite/Sunni dynamic in an attempt to Westernize the Middle East and occurring around the same time as Iran's controversial presidential election, continued strife between Israel and Pakistan, increasing worldwide oil dependency and a furthering of oil as a main cause of American warfare, continued terroristic activities in Europe, an American economic recession, etc. It hasn't been the best decade, apparently. Combat activities officially ended two weeks ago, but troops are still abroad, and will continue to be until next year (and about 50,000 will remain non-combatant). Islam-related news has been very prevalent the past few weeks, straight off the heels of the cultural center "debate" (I assume it's not really a debate if there's no actual, legal reason not to build the center), with that idiotic preacher in Florida trying to get his 15 minutes of fame. I'd really rather not even mention that story, since the over-mustached, under-educated little wannabe-demagogue (the church he founded -- and had to leave due to something along the lines of money laundering, I believe -- in Germany has decried him, as has General Petraeus, the Pope, et al) wouldn't be having any impact at all on the world if the media hadn't covered his story. Even that statement conflicts me -- the media should cover stories about book-burning and other violations, but at the price of giving a nutcase a microphone? Mayor Bloomberg called him an idiot, but cited freedom of speech -- I feel like destructing a Quran isn't an exercise in freedom, but an exercise in Klan-style passive-aggresive hate crimes. I saw this story covered on PBS Newshour, which showed video clips of flag and effigy-burnings (effigies of the preacher) in the Middle East; news of the man is well-known, giving the impression that all Americans are the same way as him, just as violent and stupid. And this information, just as Petraeus feared it would be, has been spread mostly by extremist groups. My realization after watching the segment was that this is not a battle between different peoples or different values, but a battle between uneducated extremist Christians and uneducated extremist Muslims. Both deny evolution, both want to convert everyone to their system of beliefs, both refuse to learn anything not strictly following a fundamentalist interpretation of dogma. I am fairly skeptical of any religion, and a good deal of my skepticism comes from the fact that stupid, hateful people like this exist in every expansionist religion.
I just read an Associated Press article from yesterday describing Obama talking about the continued pursuit of Al-Quida leaders. The article included a quote from former 9/11 co-chair Lee Hamilton, stating that "the American relationship with the Islamic world is one of the really great foreign policy challenges of the next decades...[w]e're not going to solve it in a year or two or five or even 10 years." Obviously, the timespan it takes for two cultures to understand each other is a very, very long one, and most Americans don't have the patience, and most humans don't have the foresight. News stations are going crazy over the story about the woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for adultery, while one of the men involved only has a three-year prison sentence and in the midst of two other women sentenced to a similar fate. This is primitive, this is unjust, sexist, wrong -- but many Americans are using this story as a way to justify their own discomfort with Islam. You can't just tell a country that it's cultural law is wrong; it is wrong, but it's just not possible to change centuries-old law. At the same time, if Iran wants to be respected as a viable modern nation, this kind of human rights violation needs to end.
I've gone far enough off-topic for now....
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