Who is a Terror Victim
I grew up in the United States of America. I spoke Hebrew and English at home, and for years wasn't always certain which language was which. My Dad is from Boston, and culturally, our home spanned the American-Israeli divide. I'm a devoted Red Sox and Patriots fan (although I'll watch any NFL game) and I look forward to Boston goes the Pops every fourth of July...but in many ways, I knew my heart was in the Middle East. Many of our friends and family lived in Israel, and when things got especially dicey with the second intifida (Arabic for uprising) which began in the mid-nineties, I held my breath with the arrival of each morning paper...praying that the front page wouldn't picture parts of bus and people strewn across a Jerusalem road. To most Americans, it was just news from thousands of miles away...to me it was and always has been personal. Friends became victims, as did family, as did friends of friends, but in the States it was nothing but news.
On September 11th, 2001 I was a junior in high school. The first tower was hit while I was in Physics with Dr.Francis. I watched the second plane hit from Economics, with Mrs. Chachus, and the world stopped. Everybody was in shock, and for the first and only day in my recollection, life in America stopped, and people came together over a collective loss. This wasn't news, this was personal. Ten years later, we commemorate the lives that ended that day. NOT THE DAY. September 11th is not a holiday, it is not an achievement...at least not for the Democratic non-Islamic fundamentalist world. In my own humble opinion, we would do best to remember our loved ones, and to forget the day. Nothing rewards terrorism more then recollection of a time when it saw success.
I've made many important decisions in my (relatively) short life, but none more pivotal then on August 15th, 2011 when I stepped on a plane in New York, and officially made Israel my home. I'm saying that I don't live a life governed by fear. I don't follow the majority, I don't say "terrorism affects people elsewhere", and I don't commemorate the ugliness in the world. If Israel erected a plaque at the location of every attack...we would be a country covered in monuments to terrorism. I can't think of anything more scarring. Our testament as human beings is in our strength. In our ability to keep living, to thrive, to recover, and more important then anything else, to still want peace. To believe that anyone CAN be a partner in peace, and that if we don't forget to see the beauty inherent in humanity, we will lose ourselves in destroying it. That is not just a lesson for Israelis, or Iraqis, or Egyptians, or Libyans, or Norwegians or Americans. The same blood courses through all of our veins, and out of that blood is born passion, passion that can turn dangerous, or can be astoundingly beautiful. Let's overcome the ugliness worldwide, and turn it into beauty.
I am proud to be both an American and an Israeli, and my heart is in both places, every single day of the year. I am thinking of those whose lives are cut short, always, and doing my best to be grateful for every moment of mine.
On September 11th, 2001 I was a junior in high school. The first tower was hit while I was in Physics with Dr.Francis. I watched the second plane hit from Economics, with Mrs. Chachus, and the world stopped. Everybody was in shock, and for the first and only day in my recollection, life in America stopped, and people came together over a collective loss. This wasn't news, this was personal. Ten years later, we commemorate the lives that ended that day. NOT THE DAY. September 11th is not a holiday, it is not an achievement...at least not for the Democratic non-Islamic fundamentalist world. In my own humble opinion, we would do best to remember our loved ones, and to forget the day. Nothing rewards terrorism more then recollection of a time when it saw success.
I've made many important decisions in my (relatively) short life, but none more pivotal then on August 15th, 2011 when I stepped on a plane in New York, and officially made Israel my home. I'm saying that I don't live a life governed by fear. I don't follow the majority, I don't say "terrorism affects people elsewhere", and I don't commemorate the ugliness in the world. If Israel erected a plaque at the location of every attack...we would be a country covered in monuments to terrorism. I can't think of anything more scarring. Our testament as human beings is in our strength. In our ability to keep living, to thrive, to recover, and more important then anything else, to still want peace. To believe that anyone CAN be a partner in peace, and that if we don't forget to see the beauty inherent in humanity, we will lose ourselves in destroying it. That is not just a lesson for Israelis, or Iraqis, or Egyptians, or Libyans, or Norwegians or Americans. The same blood courses through all of our veins, and out of that blood is born passion, passion that can turn dangerous, or can be astoundingly beautiful. Let's overcome the ugliness worldwide, and turn it into beauty.
I am proud to be both an American and an Israeli, and my heart is in both places, every single day of the year. I am thinking of those whose lives are cut short, always, and doing my best to be grateful for every moment of mine.