Anniversary

"September 11th" makes me uncomfortable.  Not because I need to be on alert for lunatics because I am an easily identified Muslim, but because the country is obsessed with mourning.  Every time I listened to NPR this week, there was a conversation about September 11th.  it's all over the news, it's everywhere. 

Although there was severe unexpected loss of life.  It's not the first and hasn't been the last mass casualty at the hands of man.  What about civilians in war torn states, or victims of ethnic cleansing, or "lynch law in America"? As long as mankind has been on this earth there have been countless senseless killings of innocent people.  However only some victims get substantial media attention and marketing campaigns ie "the events of September 11th" and the Nazi's persecution of German Jews.  Everyone else seemingly has to suck it up. 

I am certainly not trying to devalue these tragedies, but I'm not sure how you can rebuild when you're in a constant state of grief.  It's much like when someone close dies and you dwell only on the fact that they have died rather than that they lived.  My father died 6 weeks ago and when it hits me that my dad died, I am overcome with almost debilitating grief and sadness.  However, when I remembered that he lived and influenced many lives, I smile. 

If we continue to dwell on "the events of September 11th" we are empowering whomever was behind it.  The nation continues to be gripped in fear of terrorists that can't be identified.  We have become occupiers of foreign lands and our mission keeps changing because we're not sure why we're really there.  An entire industry has developed - we have spent trillions on emergency preparedness and counter-terrorism, yet we continue to be on constant alert.  We are moving backwards as we profile our neighbors and passersby - if we keep it up it'll be the Red Scare or Nikkei interment all over again.  And we call ourselves the most advanced and powerful nation in the world. 

There are cultural sensitivity and diversity training courses all over the place but what does any of that mean when we have othered the Muslim.