The Anniversary of 9/11
Although I'm a Canadian I work for an American company and so we observed silence this morning.
I am not unsympathetic to those who lost their loved ones or lives, who lost property or livelihood or lost their belief in the goodness of their world. These are all precious, and no-one should feel that they are entitled to take these things away from another person, no matter the cause or the reason. I cannot condone or defend the acts perpetrated on that day.
But where do we go from there? Do we then say that this unethical war fought half a world away with inadequate justifiaction, or resources, is a suitable response? Can we truly stand for 2 minutes of silence mourning the American losses while we know people, or have friends, from parts of the world where Genocides have happened in living memory, or are happening know?
I feel torn, on this. I do not wish to belittle what was taken away from America this day five years ago, but I stand in shock and awe at the horror of what America has done herself, both before and since.
9/11 is not about the loss of innoncents, but about the loss of innocence.
For me it was a critical moment in the birth of the City, in creating Math Cat and in defining my philosophy. It was the moment that I realized that "We hold these truths to be self-evident" meant nothing to the American governement, that the difference George W.Bush and an African tribesperson was that people might actually like the African Tribesperson where George W Bush would never have to worry about being killed by a helicoptor trying to "defend" oil-fields against unionized labour. It was the events of that day that would eventually lead me to put such faith in the concept of Taking Whole.
I am not unsympathetic to those who lost their loved ones or lives, who lost property or livelihood or lost their belief in the goodness of their world. These are all precious, and no-one should feel that they are entitled to take these things away from another person, no matter the cause or the reason. I cannot condone or defend the acts perpetrated on that day.
But where do we go from there? Do we then say that this unethical war fought half a world away with inadequate justifiaction, or resources, is a suitable response? Can we truly stand for 2 minutes of silence mourning the American losses while we know people, or have friends, from parts of the world where Genocides have happened in living memory, or are happening know?
I feel torn, on this. I do not wish to belittle what was taken away from America this day five years ago, but I stand in shock and awe at the horror of what America has done herself, both before and since.
9/11 is not about the loss of innoncents, but about the loss of innocence.
For me it was a critical moment in the birth of the City, in creating Math Cat and in defining my philosophy. It was the moment that I realized that "We hold these truths to be self-evident" meant nothing to the American governement, that the difference George W.Bush and an African tribesperson was that people might actually like the African Tribesperson where George W Bush would never have to worry about being killed by a helicoptor trying to "defend" oil-fields against unionized labour. It was the events of that day that would eventually lead me to put such faith in the concept of Taking Whole.