Why does it seem so strange that we are all drawn to be creatures of habit, each seemingly needing to come back to the place where we once came from? Do we choose to reflect upon our lives, or do we selectively remember out of habit?
These marks on our calendars are a fundamental part of who we are, and yet each time something has changed since we were there last. Just like the animals who roam this earth, we are creatures of habit. Migratory birds circle the earth thousands of miles each year on their annual mating and feeding cycles. Whales, without the benefit of decent eyesight, span the murky ocean depths returning to the same hunting grounds without fail.
And we signify various times in our lives bringing ourselves back to that singular moment designated as a birth, a death, or some pivotal moment forever ingrained, “lest we forget”.
In the past, I’ve often heard remarks from those who claimed they knew where they were and what they were doing the day John F. Kennedy was shot, or when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon, but for some reason I had my doubts. Lacking a significant event in my own history to compare it with, now I understand what a single event can do to change ones life. Three years later, I can still remember where I was and how I felt the moment it happened. 911 will forever be ingrained into my soul as a day of terror. Still there are lingering doubts. Are we really so different from a flock of gulls?
I’m not worried if I will forget the gripping moments while I watched in disturbed horror as civilization seemed so vulnerable, but now looking back as time moves on, one has to wonder how this event will be interpreted collectively in the years that follow.
Unlike animals, people have the luxury of insight and adaptation. Our species is so adept in meeting new challenges that change is expected, anticipated. And so we move on to new paths in our own lives and collectively as a culture.
But I can only wonder what will happen if we fail to understand the importance of what 911 really is to this generation. Sadly, I am left feeling that we have already been caught in the misrepresentation of its significance. Just like World War One, we are caught in the potential trap of having not only to endure a terrible beginning, but having to repeat it again in a more horrible way because we cannot remember past mistakes. With the Armistice of the Great War, the United States government witnessed in dismay as the French and English sought and won alarmingly punitive compensation from their defeated enemies, and occupied vital industrial/agricultural regions critical to their survival. Just as we were once brushed aside by the European victors written off as inexperienced in the complexities of world affairs, it is our turn to repay the favor with Iraq. What will be the cost this time?
Can we endure another election cycle of costly political mistakes that don’t take into account the importance of history past? Are we truly prepared for the revenge our enemies will wage against us for our brutal and arrogant treatment?
One has to ask, do we choose to remember, or are we destined to repeat? Let us all only hope it isn’t the latter.
1 comment:
Interesting reference to WWI. You could also include that it was the assassinations of archduke Ferdinand and Isabella by the Black Hand and then the subsequent declaration of war on Serbia (by Austria-Hungary) and then Russia (by Germany, in alliance with Austria-Hungary). Really the whole first world war seems really bizarre to me, but the beginnings certainly seem to relate: assassination of people in the twin towers and Pentagon, then deciding it was Al Qaida and in turn attacking Afghanistan followed by Iraq. The whole of both of those things is pretty bogus.... ehh
--Kelly
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