My thoughts on 9/11/2001, a year later

I've seen a person or two call the attacks an attack on freedom.

I'd rather not think of it as an attack on "freedom". I'd rather think of it as an attack on love... the love all humans should have towards one another. Oh, maybe some people think that 'love' is too strong a word, but it's the only one I know.

I'm talking about the thing that will make a person lend a hand to someone who desperately needs it, even if they don't know the person. The thing that made the US soldiers stop hating the Iraqis when they saw that old men and children were holding the lines they were breaking through, and they realized that the Iraqis were also the victims of Saddam Hussein. The thing that made people cry real tears of grief for the thousands who died in a country many of them had no reason to care about.

I think that recognizing it as an attack on love... an attack on common human decency... an attack on whatever tiny spark of goodness that would make a person say "even if I *HATE* the US, and *HAVE* to destroy the World Trade Center, why would I kill so many innocent people on this plane?" puts it in the proper perspective. Because, you see, that's a much more horrible thing than an attack on "freedom".

Because it's not just an attack on something that is enjoyed some places, and yearned after in others... it's an attack on something that is felt, and understood even by people under the most ruthless and brutal dictatorship.

And... I hope this doesn't make me sound unpatriotic, but it's not a cause for wearing red, white, and blue and chanting patriotic slogans and shouting about freedom.

It's a cause for wearing mourning clothes; it's a cause for shedding silent tears for such a stupid, needless crime... and it's a cause for shouting for justice.

Untold millions of people across the world would have moved (and probably did move) mountains to find the fingers that pointed the killers to their targets, and they'd do that without caring if the US was an ally or a rival. If this had happened in (to pick a specific 'enemy' - quotes, because it's not the Iraqis who are our enemy, but only the current government) Iraq, and the monsters responsible were hiding in the US, I'd hope they'd know that there's no hole deep enough for them to hide in.

I'm not complaining about the patriotism some folks are showing, and I'm certainly not complaining about those who feel that patriotic displays are the right way to handle things. But I hope that, deep down, they know that this is something that transcends imaginary lines on a map, differences in systems of government, and differences in beliefs and ideologies. I hope they all realize that it's something much more fundamental.

I hope they realize that it's not an attack of terror, or against liberty... but that it's an attack of hate.

And I hope they know that, just as you don't give in to fear, to avoid letting the terrorists win, you don't give in to hate, to avoid letting the hatebringers win.

My thoughts on 9/11/2001, a year later

I've seen a person or two call the attacks an attack on freedom.

I'd rather not think of it as an attack on "freedom". I'd rather think of it as an attack on love... the love all humans should have towards one another. Oh, maybe some people think that 'love' is too strong a word, but it's the only one I know.

I'm talking about the thing that will make a person lend a hand to someone who desperately needs it, even if they don't know the person. The thing that made the US soldiers stop hating the Iraqis when they saw that old men and children were holding the lines they were breaking through, and they realized that the Iraqis were also the victims of Saddam Hussein. The thing that made people cry real tears of grief for the thousands who died in a country many of them had no reason to care about.

I think that recognizing it as an attack on love... an attack on common human decency... an attack on whatever tiny spark of goodness that would make a person say "even if I *HATE* the US, and *HAVE* to destroy the World Trade Center, why would I kill so many innocent people on this plane?" puts it in the proper perspective. Because, you see, that's a much more horrible thing than an attack on "freedom".

Because it's not just an attack on something that is enjoyed some places, and yearned after in others... it's an attack on something that is felt, and understood even by people under the most ruthless and brutal dictatorship.

And... I hope this doesn't make me sound unpatriotic, but it's not a cause for wearing red, white, and blue and chanting patriotic slogans and shouting about freedom.

It's a cause for wearing mourning clothes; it's a cause for shedding silent tears for such a stupid, needless crime... and it's a cause for shouting for justice.

Untold millions of people across the world would have moved (and probably did move) mountains to find the fingers that pointed the killers to their targets, and they'd do that without caring if the US was an ally or a rival. If this had happened in (to pick a specific 'enemy' - quotes, because it's not the Iraqis who are our enemy, but only the current government) Iraq, and the monsters responsible were hiding in the US, I'd hope they'd know that there's no hole deep enough for them to hide in.

I'm not complaining about the patriotism some folks are showing, and I'm certainly not complaining about those who feel that patriotic displays are the right way to handle things. But I hope that, deep down, they know that this is something that transcends imaginary lines on a map, differences in systems of government, and differences in beliefs and ideologies. I hope they all realize that it's something much more fundamental.

I hope they realize that it's not an attack of terror, or against liberty... but that it's an attack of hate.

And I hope they know that, just as you don't give in to fear, to avoid letting the terrorists win, you don't give in to hate, to avoid letting the hatebringers win.