Sometimes holidays and remembrances are helpful; sometimes they are more trouble than they are worth. I am left today (September 11) worse than I was a week ago.
Let me start here. Sunday morning in Richmond, the major networks are inundated with the god squad. If you are up early enough, you even get to see faith healers at work. Praise the Lord, and pass the collection plate. The local NBC affiliate has Dr. James Kennedy (presumably a doctorate in religion or something) and his nationally syndicated program. Reverend Kennedy is one of those folks like Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson who feels it's his Christian duty to make this a better country by having us all believe in his god and sharing his political agenda. And there he was on September 8th, saying the same thing that got Brother Jerry in trouble. After beating around the bush when asked by his own interviewer whether or not god caused 9/11 because we were sinners, he then said that the bible is full of references where an angry god sent plague and locusts and other bad things for living an ungodly existence. Dr. Kennedy, you see, is the slick Willie of Sunday preachers. 'No I'm not going to tell you what got brother Jerry in trouble but...it COULD have happened." And then of course we finish with a plea for money. Costs money to keep his show on TeeVee, and donations have been slim lately.
Let's see now, who was it that caused 9/11? Oh yea...a bunch of religious fanatics who said that their god wanted the world to be different. Allahu Akbar, and pass the collection plate! But of course Dr. Kennedy's message is different. After all, it's OUR god, and your god ain't diddlysquat.
Let's see now, why DID all those religious groups come over here in the first place???
By the way, Dr. Kennedy and Brother Jerry Falwell might take solace in the fact that they are not alone in their thinking. Saddam Hussein's official newspaper Al-Iktisadi ran a front-page photo of the burning World Trade Center with a red headline: "God's Punishment."
And then I watch the ceremonies on TV. If you didn't know any different, you'd swear that New York is the only place where lives were lost. Never mind the heroes that faced their attackers and foiled the plot. Because of them, we still have a Congress. We still have a government. Never mind the brave men and women that gave their lives in Virginia (home of the Pentagon), and managed to stick a finger in the eye of the attackers by having the place pristine in less than a year. Never mind the Virginians who are now suffering because of the tremendous tax revenues lost to closed airports and hamstrung businesses.
We ALL lost.
A WORLD of people died when the WTC towers fell. It was a WORLD trade center.
And so what is the right thing to do in the aftermath? Rise from the ashes as those in the Pentagon did? Create a memorial and consider "Ground Zero" to be a graveyard? Complain about the inequities in the compensation system for those with loved ones lost? Tell those at Logan that they deserve to be sued for letting the attackers through?
And what of my dark, dark feelings? Do the attackers understand that the vast majority of people here really don't "get" their message? Do they understand the hate they generated? Do they REALLY want to know what I feel way, way down inside, far away from the politically correct zone?
Is it possible to retain your love of life and man with so much hateful behavior?
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- Charles DeGaullePlus je sait l'homme, plus j'aime mon chien.
There, it is out of me - for now.
- Bill
[This message has been edited by Bill Glasheen (edited September 11, 2002).]
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