Today is a hard day for me, because I feel the significance of Sept. 11 for people back in the States… yet we remember it from the “outside”. It’s a little bit like wanting to be at a funeral for someone you care for, but you can only send flowers. Yet it’s not quite like a funeral, is it? The horror of 9/11 was not only the success of Al Qaeda in massacring thousands of people for their cause. It was also the sudden awareness that peace is a very fragile thing.
I was born in 1973. I remember the Cold War, the thaw of “perestroika” and “glasnost” between Russia and America, the fall of the Iron Curtain, which left the USA as the main superpower of the world. Despite the first Gulf War, we had a pretty good feeling of security. Our nation seemed to have found a comfortable global niche. During the 1990’s our attention was caught up in many domestic issues. Peace seemed a natural thing. Or at the very least, war was something that happened “over there”.
Five years later, our world feels so changed. But I think in the end this tragedy may make our country more awake to the rest of the world, ready for dialogue and understanding the forces that shape people in their beliefs and actions. As I listened in today to the New York City radio station WNYC over the Web, the Brian Lehrer show asked the question, “What have we learned from the last 5 years?” You might find this interesting to listen to: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2006/09/11 Many New Yorkers shared their views, by call-in or e-mail (you may even hear him read an e-mail from an American missionary living in England).
But I wonder how you would answer the question: what have you learned in the last 5 years since 9/11?
Blessings,
Brian
