The 9/11 10th Anniversary Post
September 11th, 2011 started out pretty normally. I was in high school, enjoying the beginning of my sophomore year. I didn't find out about the first plane hitting the World Trade until the break between the first and second period. And when second period began, we found out that the second plane hit the second tower, and we realized that it wasn't an accident.
Suffice to say, the rest of the school day kind of took the backseat to the unfolding events. We checked the Internet for news during every break (Library computers were useful like this). Teachers tried their best to keep us informed. Some tried to keep the lesson going, but most classes pretty much turned into discussions of the terrorist attacks. The teachers tried their best to reassure us, but I don't think anyone quite bought it (though we certainly appreciated the effort). All sorts of wild theories were thrown out and discarded. We talking about the possibly of more terrorist attacks, the possibility that we might go to war. Everybody was afraid of what's going to happen next.
By the time we were sent home, a group of students I vaguely knew were already discussing the possibility that there was a conspiracy, that the World Trade Center was actually blown up via controlled demolition. They got that off the Internet.
As for me... I would like to say that I was shocked and saddened, but that wouldn't be quite true. I was born city which lost over a million people during World War II. I was in elementary school when a war between Russian federal government and the separatist forces in the Chechnya broke out. So my reaction wasn't so much "oh my God, this is horrible," as "oh my God, I can't believe this happened in United States." War has come to America. Horrific death tolls have come to America. I was so used to thinking that this country was somehow above it all, that its wealth and power protected it from that sort of carnage and destruction. More than anything, I felt heartbroken. Heartbroken and sad.
For the first time since I arrived in United States, I felt sad and sorry for Americans. Not individual people - Americans in general. At the time, that was a pretty big deal.
And I kept thinking - please, please, don't let the American government do something stupid.
Things didn't work out this way. After Taliban was forced out of Afghanistan, US military invaded Iraq under dubious pretext, and the jury is still out on whether Iraq would be able to achieve lasting stability, let alone peace and prosperity. In effort to prevent another attack, American defense and covert intelligence apparatus resorted to methods that would have been considered torture and abuse if anyone other than United States was caught using them. Those same agencies invaded the privacy of the American people and held prisoners under pretexts that, again, would have been seen as human right abuses if it happened in, say, Turkmenstan. And the worst part was that the majority of Americans seemed to be fine with this.
America was supposed to be a beacon of democracy and personal freedom. It was supposed to be a shining example for the rest of the world. That's the way Americans like to see themselves. That's the reason why so many refugees and political dissidents came to this country. The fact that so many people were so willing to turn back on all... It was disappointing, and, in all honesty, kind of scary.
And yet...
Osama Bin Laden is dead. So are many of his comrades. Afghani government may be corrupt and occasionally autocratic, but it was still an improvement over Taliban. Iraqi government may be divide and weak, but, again, at least it's not Saddam. New York City is recovering from the damage inflicted upon it, honoring the dead as it movies forward.
Does that justify the excesses of the American government? No. But it's still something Americans should be proud of.
A lot has changed over the past ten years. The real estate bubble grew and burst. United States elected its first African-American president. The technology has made unbelievable strides in so many directions. As for me... I still don't feel all that American, but I am long past the point where I can dismiss Americans as "them." I have reasons to stay in this country. I have reasons to care about happens to it. For better or for worse, my fate and the fate of this country is intertwined - and I would like to keep it this way.
Today, we have 10-year-olds who don't remember the world before 9/11. I am curious to see what happens to them once they grow up, once they are old enough to leave their own mark. I am especially curious to see how they will judge the generation that came before it. I am sure it wouldn't be quite like what we'd expect.
In closing, I would like to take a moment to honor all the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. I would like to honor everyone who rushed into the wreckage and tried their best to help. I would like to honor everybody who survived, everybody who lost friends and loved ones. And finally, I would like to honor the American (and allied) military forces. Whatever I may say about the wars they are fighting, they are putting their lives on the line. That alone deserves respect.
Вечная слава им всем. Eternal glory to them all.
Suffice to say, the rest of the school day kind of took the backseat to the unfolding events. We checked the Internet for news during every break (Library computers were useful like this). Teachers tried their best to keep us informed. Some tried to keep the lesson going, but most classes pretty much turned into discussions of the terrorist attacks. The teachers tried their best to reassure us, but I don't think anyone quite bought it (though we certainly appreciated the effort). All sorts of wild theories were thrown out and discarded. We talking about the possibly of more terrorist attacks, the possibility that we might go to war. Everybody was afraid of what's going to happen next.
By the time we were sent home, a group of students I vaguely knew were already discussing the possibility that there was a conspiracy, that the World Trade Center was actually blown up via controlled demolition. They got that off the Internet.
As for me... I would like to say that I was shocked and saddened, but that wouldn't be quite true. I was born city which lost over a million people during World War II. I was in elementary school when a war between Russian federal government and the separatist forces in the Chechnya broke out. So my reaction wasn't so much "oh my God, this is horrible," as "oh my God, I can't believe this happened in United States." War has come to America. Horrific death tolls have come to America. I was so used to thinking that this country was somehow above it all, that its wealth and power protected it from that sort of carnage and destruction. More than anything, I felt heartbroken. Heartbroken and sad.
For the first time since I arrived in United States, I felt sad and sorry for Americans. Not individual people - Americans in general. At the time, that was a pretty big deal.
And I kept thinking - please, please, don't let the American government do something stupid.
Things didn't work out this way. After Taliban was forced out of Afghanistan, US military invaded Iraq under dubious pretext, and the jury is still out on whether Iraq would be able to achieve lasting stability, let alone peace and prosperity. In effort to prevent another attack, American defense and covert intelligence apparatus resorted to methods that would have been considered torture and abuse if anyone other than United States was caught using them. Those same agencies invaded the privacy of the American people and held prisoners under pretexts that, again, would have been seen as human right abuses if it happened in, say, Turkmenstan. And the worst part was that the majority of Americans seemed to be fine with this.
America was supposed to be a beacon of democracy and personal freedom. It was supposed to be a shining example for the rest of the world. That's the way Americans like to see themselves. That's the reason why so many refugees and political dissidents came to this country. The fact that so many people were so willing to turn back on all... It was disappointing, and, in all honesty, kind of scary.
And yet...
Osama Bin Laden is dead. So are many of his comrades. Afghani government may be corrupt and occasionally autocratic, but it was still an improvement over Taliban. Iraqi government may be divide and weak, but, again, at least it's not Saddam. New York City is recovering from the damage inflicted upon it, honoring the dead as it movies forward.
Does that justify the excesses of the American government? No. But it's still something Americans should be proud of.
A lot has changed over the past ten years. The real estate bubble grew and burst. United States elected its first African-American president. The technology has made unbelievable strides in so many directions. As for me... I still don't feel all that American, but I am long past the point where I can dismiss Americans as "them." I have reasons to stay in this country. I have reasons to care about happens to it. For better or for worse, my fate and the fate of this country is intertwined - and I would like to keep it this way.
Today, we have 10-year-olds who don't remember the world before 9/11. I am curious to see what happens to them once they grow up, once they are old enough to leave their own mark. I am especially curious to see how they will judge the generation that came before it. I am sure it wouldn't be quite like what we'd expect.
In closing, I would like to take a moment to honor all the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. I would like to honor everyone who rushed into the wreckage and tried their best to help. I would like to honor everybody who survived, everybody who lost friends and loved ones. And finally, I would like to honor the American (and allied) military forces. Whatever I may say about the wars they are fighting, they are putting their lives on the line. That alone deserves respect.
Вечная слава им всем. Eternal glory to them all.