What 9/11 Means to Me
What does 9/11 mean to me?
I remember that day well. I was in my classroom, teaching a class, when a fellow teacher came up and said that the world trade center was burning, that a plane hit it.
I turned on the classroom TV to CNN and saw the pictures and video. I watched the second airplane strike the second tower. And when the first tower began to collapse, my knees buckled, I had to lean back against the wall, and attempt to retain my composure in front of my students despite the tears welling in my eyes.
The question on my mind was "Why?"
"Why did this happen?"
"Why would someone do this?"
I believe that people are inherently good, or at least that they do what they believe is right, for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Given that, I again asked myself, "Why?"
The answer that galvanized in my head was this: someone thought this was the right thing to do, the good thing to do, the thing that was best for their family and community.
Osama bin Laden claims to have been the person responsible for the event. The reason he gives is that the U.S.A., and most of the western world, is meddling in the Middle East and Muslim world. He points to the U.S. military bases, the attacks on the people of Iraq, the invasion of Lebanon, the subjugation of Palestine, amongst a number of grievances. Bin Laden talks of the children killed, the women killed, the livelihoods destroyed.
Now, here we are, seven years later.
What do I think now about 9/11?
I think about all the people that have died, not just in the USA, but in all of the world, as a result of this contest over the resources of the world.
I think about the great conflict that will come as peak oil becomes apparent, and the nations of the world finally drop their facades and talk openly about their claims to the oil that remains.
And I mourn.
I feel sorrow for a world in which we fight for what we want, and in the process destroy Earth, destroy each other, and destroy ourselves.
That is what I think about, and what I feel, on 9/11.
Transcripts
Bid Laden 2004 Video Transcript
Bin Laden 1998 War Declaration
I remember that day well. I was in my classroom, teaching a class, when a fellow teacher came up and said that the world trade center was burning, that a plane hit it.
I turned on the classroom TV to CNN and saw the pictures and video. I watched the second airplane strike the second tower. And when the first tower began to collapse, my knees buckled, I had to lean back against the wall, and attempt to retain my composure in front of my students despite the tears welling in my eyes.
The question on my mind was "Why?"
"Why did this happen?"
"Why would someone do this?"
I believe that people are inherently good, or at least that they do what they believe is right, for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Given that, I again asked myself, "Why?"
The answer that galvanized in my head was this: someone thought this was the right thing to do, the good thing to do, the thing that was best for their family and community.
Osama bin Laden claims to have been the person responsible for the event. The reason he gives is that the U.S.A., and most of the western world, is meddling in the Middle East and Muslim world. He points to the U.S. military bases, the attacks on the people of Iraq, the invasion of Lebanon, the subjugation of Palestine, amongst a number of grievances. Bin Laden talks of the children killed, the women killed, the livelihoods destroyed.
Now, here we are, seven years later.
What do I think now about 9/11?
I think about all the people that have died, not just in the USA, but in all of the world, as a result of this contest over the resources of the world.
I think about the great conflict that will come as peak oil becomes apparent, and the nations of the world finally drop their facades and talk openly about their claims to the oil that remains.
And I mourn.
I feel sorrow for a world in which we fight for what we want, and in the process destroy Earth, destroy each other, and destroy ourselves.
That is what I think about, and what I feel, on 9/11.
Transcripts
Bid Laden 2004 Video Transcript
Bin Laden 1998 War Declaration