The Hidden Message in the Events of 9/11/2001

I woke up on 9/11/2015 knowing what day it was. I didn’t watch a single tribute. I couldn’t. I can’t. I need to focus on positive things. But I did read something that really made me think and reflect, and remember. The article was on Tickld(sic), entitled How 9/11 Was Displayed In Non-American Countries. This Is Eye-Opening.

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It has always been my nature to try and see the good in people. It’s been my downfall more than a few times as well. I still choose to believe human nature in general is the same. We all want the same things, a roof over our heads, food on our tables, education and a better life for our children, peace, freedom, and love.

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I know many of you might be thinking yeah, this peace freak, tree hugging, uber liberal is just naïve and doesn’t see the evil in people. Oh, but I do, much more than I get credit for. But I don’t see evil in people until they show it to me. And I am very observant in looking for their true colors. I’ve learned to trust my instincts. I’m cautious but I’m also open and slow to trust.

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When I saw the coverage on that horrible day, I was working in Triage Registration at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Jacksonville, Florida. We could see the lobby television from the triage station and watched as the second plane hit the tower. I avoided it as much as I could until I got home that day. I’m very empathetic and I know how I am. I waited until I got home to watch, and sobbed as I did. I couldn’t allow myself to do that on the job.

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The article was short statements from people in multiple countries who spoke of their experience when they learned of the attack. While I have no way of verifying their stories, these stories struck a chord in me. They reaffirmed my belief that those who naturally react with sympathy and empathy in the face of such events still far outnumber those who act and react with violence. It even had a statement from an Iraqi citizen who states they had candlelight vigils for those lost in the attacks. Some of the very people many Americans consider the enemy held candlelight vigils to honor our dead. They were horrified by the attacks, as anyone with a conscience should be. They were not celebrating in the streets and expressing their joy at the loss of thousands of innocent people any more than we celebrate the deaths of innocents anywhere else in the world. And those who do should be ashamed. Human life is precious, no matter where that human lives.

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What I fail to understand about my country is that there are a lot of people who don’t want to hear that their “enemy” is human too. They don’t want to think that those people want safety and peace for their families. They also don’t want to hear that they are not all the same. They don’t want to know that the extremists of any “enemy” culture are not the norm. But then I also have a problem understanding how people can see any innocent human life as expendable in what they consider a ‘war for the common good’. I don’t how killing the innocent people of your enemy’s country is for common good. If anything, covert operations are preferable over air strikes because you can narrow the targets to the real enemy and not the innocents around them. Not that I’m pro-war, very much the opposite but I am realistic and sometimes the extremists must be stopped or more innocents die. The problems come in when we have very pro-war people controlling what we know about the military action we take and manipulate what we know to support their agenda, something I know my country is guilty of. And it infuriates me that they do so and act in my name and the name of others who believe as I do then lie to us about it. But the bottom line is war is not always the answer. It’s almost never the answer. And realizing that people in ‘the enemy’ country are much like us. Things are being done by their countrymen that they don’t agree with and they are often lied to about it as well. More of us oppose war than support it and those who close their eyes and ears to that fact and support it anyway are acting against their own best interests. I’ve come to see that my country is often the aggressor because of those in my government who believe that war is the first and only answer and who make huge profits on every war. They’re so focused on their profits that they put money over human life, something I am VERY MUCH opposed to. It hurts me deep to see people shrug off the lives of other human beings in support of these people.