9-11 Reflections

Posted in Currenthoughts by Brooke Trout

We got so busy last month with all our shows we didn’t get a chance to stop and reflect about the capture of Bin Laden. This was a very heart wrenching experience for so many of us, taking us back to the time and place of 9-11 all over again to feel all those same shocks, fears, sorrows. It is hard to believe it has already been ten years since that day that changed our lives and our perceptions forever. Here is the poem Brooke wrote on the day of 9-11 when she drove to the beach to watch the ocean and pray:

Search For Serenity
I walked into a moment of silence
Only pensive reactions to a moment in time
So sudden, no ceremony
Ever-vigilant talk radio and newspaper bins emptied
Activity and frequency
Sighs of sympathy and cash registering
I went to the ocean
breathing deeply of the commerce in serenity
flies feast on the carnage of seaweed
Through the water the fragile sand billows
like explosion, individuality
population and time
Children build their sandcastles
as Adults destroy steel towers
Flies assault kelp
fliers search for help
I stare into the blue
signals and shells
beautiful and vulnerable
like lady liberty
lucky to live past age of youth
with no fear
no wars, dilemma
aids gangs drugs and suicide
petty?
compared to
assassination genocide
Is that pride?
Now terrorism
was it a death wish
to sneer at innocence
I thought of lambs; slaughtered
I thought of God; shepherd
Mercy and strength in desperate times
Power almighty stronger than cowardice
Crashing planes
crashing waves
wash us anew

It has been a time for retrospective reflection. Big Dave recently drew Brooke’s attention to an article she wrote back in the 90s as an editor for a zine in the northwest. The article entitled, Patriotic Patriarch may have expressed the naivety of her youth but Dave noted that the sentiments were just as valid today. Article excerpt: “My ears have endured too much political banter for a lifetime. People can become politically obsessed, and yet in all of their obsession, make no move for positive change. I am tired of the idea that the X-generation is pessimistic. This label was created by the media who are predominately baby-boomers. If children are a reflection of their upbringing doesn’t that make the baby-boomers the pessimists? This is the country where if you try, you can accomplish anything. If you give your all to your community, you will receive that much more in return for your contributions to society. That is what patriotism is all about. Patriotism isn’t about triumph in war and superiority over other countries. It is all about pride in our accomplishments as individuals working together towards our goals. Patriotism starts right in the hearts of you and I. In respecting each other’s differences we can grow to understand humanity’s true purpose.”

Dave: Nearly a decade ago, American flags and effigies of the president were burned in parts of the Muslim world in celebration of 3 out of 4 successful plane crashes. Many danced and chanted a phrase which came to define the fear that would define much of those ten years: “Death To America”. No matter the politics, it sent shivers down our nations’s spine, shivers so deep that we the people would surrender much of the bill of rights to politicians working to spread “freedom” to the world. I thought about this when, last month, we saw a very different sort of chanting and dancing. The difference wasn’t simply that citizens of New York and Washington D.C. were marking that an international criminal and terrorist had finally been brought to justice for the murder of thousands instead of celebrating those thousands of deaths. The difference was champagne and beach balls.

When the crowds gathered in Time’s Square, at the White House, there were no burning replicas of Osama Bin Ladin, no flaming Afghan flags, no calls for death to anyone. They cheered. They cried. They hung from street lights and popped champagne. They hit beach balls outside the White House like it was Dodger Stadium. They shouted, in that singular voice something that stills gives me chills, in a very different way. “USA! USA!”

Those who would make enemies are violently obsessed with those they oppose, and they celebrate destructively. Those who strive for peace take pride in their land, their community, and realize they are one in the same.

They also drink in public and hit beach balls.

USA. USA.

Brooke: It is interesting to see what time has revealed. Earlier last year I read an economic social study that revealed generation-Xrs to be the current hardest working generation, the hardest working since the greatest generation. The suicide rate in baby boomers is now said to be the highest of all age groups. After 9-11 I know my perception of the world was irrevocably changed, but the spirit and triumph of hope after diligent patience and steadfast endurance has restored my jaded patriotism and brought me back to a place where I can yet again feel the power of this poem that I wrote before I even had the right to vote:

The American Dream
Manifest Destiny
American Beauty
Constantly scoping out a just purpose
To clarify our existence of unity
A hope lies within me
When I feel their great apathy
They say we are running out of resources
But there will be no shortage of dignity
Our reality – OUR reality
I want them to understand
That our dreams are a sufficient land
And upon them we’ll feast and be