The World Is Stupid

Okay, okay, one more 9/11-related post, this one funnier.

There has been a ton of garbage in the news this week making a huge deal that the "world" wants Barack Obama to be President, with the usual reaction from those who comment on the poll that this is a historic election, one with some type of mandate for Obama to win.

My usual reaction to stories like this is that they are either incorrect or irrelevant, because while many foreign nations do a better job than America in knowing the identity of foreign officials, due to America's free press and wide availability of information we in America know, or at least have access to, more general information about the conditions and views of foreign nations than they do about us. The result of this is that what little information about American politics filters out to foreign nations is usually wrong, over-generalized, and/or incredibly slanted, so that foreign citizens dont get a real view of the issues or platforms of American candidates.

But I have a new and much simpler hypothesis today -- the world is just plain stupid. As evidence of this, take an incredible world-wide poll that shows the world can't even come to a consensus as to who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and one in four dont even have the mental ability to even come to a conclusion. And I'm not talking about people in huts, here. I'm talking about people in developed areas who were able to conduct an interview.

Are you kidding me? Not only did Al Qaeda take credit for the attacks specifically, but some of the highjackers actually wrote suicide notes! Not to mention the actual phone calls from the United 93 passengers. But no, I'm sure it was Bush and the Jews, or maybe Lee Harvey Oswald.

Never?

"Time to get paid/Blow up like the World Trade..."

It's been seven years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Seven years since we were made to feel unsafe from large-scale terrorism in our own cities, since we witnessed the death of so many brave citizens, New York rescue workers (and several in Washington, D.C., also), and public servants, and seven years since "we will never forget." The outpouring of emotion and patriotism I witnessed immediately after 9/11 from everyday people made me feel proud and humbled. I honestly thought that we would never forget.

On 9/11, when the first attack happened, I was in college, and specifically probably in the shower. "Wifey" called me to tell me what had happened, because she had an early class and heard the initial news that one of the twin towers had been hit. My the time the second tower had been hit, I was already glued to the news. After classes were cancelled, I spent the better part of the day frantically trying to find out if my father who lived a couple of blocks from the WTC, and other relatives in New York, were okay. Most cellular phone lines in NYC were down, and the few that werent were in use by emergency personnel, or by the lucky few who were able to access them. What you may or may not know was as that time, Verizon also hosted the land-lines for Manhattan, so the land lines whose infrastructure wasn't destroyed were also down, probably for a similar issue. Fortunately, I was eventually able to get an email through to my dad's secretary, who was able to email me back (in time, not instantly) to let me know my father and my stepmother were okay. After I was able to calm down, I knew my view of the world was never going to be the same, nor necessarily should it.

A year after 9/11 I had moved and was actually living in the deep South, going to a different school. What amazed me was that on the 9/11 anniversary, no one I went to school with even seemed to care. I had lunch with a new friend I made from Alabama in the school cafe, glued to the news, with hardly anyone around us, and we both shared the feeling that none of the students around us held the day with any reverence, nor did they even seem to really care. From then on, I have felt a deep sadness on every 9/11 anniversary, that our collective memory was fading too quickly.

The foreign policy issues I leave to better individuals, but the point I'm trying to make is that 9/11 affected me. I am not trying to say that the way it affected me was the way it should affect everyone, or that there is a proper reaction or course of action anyone should take. My point is that with every passing year, we do forget, and more than I would like to admit. I understand that everyone deals with grief and fear differently, but many of the things I have heard lead me to believe that there are no surreptitious prayers or moments of silence or reaction from many of the people I interact with on a daily basis. Any many politicians I see who pay lip service to 9/11 seem to be doing so not due to some deep reverence, but as a political obligation or as part of some larger (in their mind) agenda.

So, please, do me a favor. On 9/11/09, take a few minutes and allow yourself to re-live that day. Take a few minutes in prayer or reflection, or send something to a soldier, or visit a monument, or just do something patriotic or hell, even selfless. Do something to keep 9/11 in your conciousness. I can't promise you something good, or even enlightening, will happen, but I can promise you that it's better than doing nothing.