Six years have passed, but all that time hasn't dulled my memory of that Tuesday morning a bit. All the emotion I felt that morning hasn't left me, but just been buried under years of other problems mercifully taking my mind away from what that morning's events represented. Last year at this time, I was enjoying 115 degree heat in the cradle of civilization and bringing the fight to the moral brethren of the September 11th attackers, so I don't know what to do with myself this year. More disturbing is that I don't know what to think about today being September the 11th, as though I've allowed myself to numb to the importance of the date. This was a day we must never forget lest we should allow ourselves the complacency that made its tragedy possible in the first place.
Civilization began in the fertile crescent of the Nile, Jordan, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, where ancient cultures developed thanks to the sustenance available to them from proximity to those powerful, thriving rivers. Human civilization further lept forward in the Mesopotamian city of Babylon (in present-day southern Iraq) with the establishment of coded laws, and its prowess as a civilization could be gleaned from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. As long as there has been civilization, there has been civilization in Iraq; indeed, it has been a launching point for civilization and culture all throughout human history. But we are entering a dark age of civilization of which Iraq is already deep in the throes, because civilization does not come inherent with large collections of people but from those people sharing a cumulative moral value. Plenty of trade is being conducted both here and there, culture in and of itself continues to develop, yet there exists an increasingly downward trend of morality, responsibility, and respect for fellow man that condemn us as a civilization.
Peace is a glorious achievement and should be the end goal of humanity, but that kind of peace must be righteous. Easy peace in the depths of corruption, murder and immorality is no peace at all, and our present decline of morality becomes evident in our civilization's lack of moral courage to fight immorality, murder and extortion at our own doorstep. All of our great progress in science, culture, art, business and technology cannot continue with an impotence of will to consistently reaffirm our right to exist. Our progress, our values are doomed if we think ignoring the murderer will stop him from killing us in our sleep.
I remember that morning well. Second and third period I spent at the vocational center, and Mr. Michel had the television tuned to the news, which was unusual, so I walked in and watched. Two hours later, after the towers had fallen, I still stood where I had first walked in, my backpack was still on my back and my coat had never come off. I hadn't even noticed that there was a full class around me, seemingly oblivious to the importance of what had just happened. I went to my next class, and the teacher had the radio on. She was listening to it, and so was I, unable to tear myself away from it while my fellow students took advantage of our teacher's preoccupation with the radio. They sat in the back of the classroom and joked around, talked about what they had done the last weekend and who was dating whom. I had to concentrate to keep myself from crying in public, but they seemed more concerned with what was happening in baseball. All I can think is that those must be the people able to yell out for peace, screaming that we should never have gone to Iraq, that we've got too many other problems to deal with at home to continue this war. They must not have been paying attention on September 11th, 2001.
Afterthought: In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor when World War II was already in full swing. At best, Americans heard about that day's events over the radio long after it had happened, versus watching the whole event play out in real time and in living color. Roughly half as many Americans died that day, mostly military, and it brought the United States fully into World War II. The war continued for four years and cost almost 167 times as many American lives as the war in Iraq, throughout brutal victories and defeats, with military servicemen away from home for at least twice as long as today. Yet American support for that war began and continued to be extremely strong, with the might of the American economy working almost single-mindedly towards wartime efforts the entire time. That war took four years and ended decisively and gloriously in favor of the United States. Perhaps in sixty years we have indeed lost that much of our courage, endurance, and surety of righteousness. We must unite, and regain our lost composure and strength of purpose, if we are to prevail now as we did then.
