Did things change?

I guess that everyone remembers what they were doing on September 11 2001. I had taken my mother for an ECT treatment for her depression and was sitting in the family lounge at the hospital when the TV announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Then the second plane flew in and the rest is history, as they say.

I didn't know the repercussions of what had happened and how far reaching the aftermath would be, but I felt a sick feeling that this act would bring about a war, more bloodshed, and perhaps threaten the world as no other conflict had. Some of my earliest thoughts weren't off the mark. We have a war, we have more bloodshed. Although our world continues to revolve around the sun, I feel restless about the well-being of this country and the state of the world in general. I fear that the bully-pulpit and self-interest greed of our nation is going to have dire consequences for years to come. Maybe it's my feeling of powerlessness, but I don't want to see more tributes and events on the news. I don't want to hear more about the "Axis of Evil" or how everyone is a potential "terrorist". I don't have much faith in the current administration and have become much more skeptical about the individuals who are entrusted with running the government.

Because of 9/11, I fear that we are more likely to have our civil rights violated by the government; we are less likely to have needed social services, adequate health care, and good education because of the continuing war. What we are more likely to have are erosions to Constitutional rights because of the endless "war on terrorism"; and we are more likely to witness environmental degradation because the focus is on having a capitalistic society.

I was hoping that the tragedy of 9/11 would be the kind of wakeup call to this country that would bring about something positive in the world. That we would be looked upon with respect because we had learned to take care of each other here so that people would be better educated, have better health care, housing, and a feeling of connection to the other nations in the world.

I think that the real tragedy these years after 9/11 is that we haven't learned real lessons about the rest of the world and how to take the best of this country and use it to the benefit of other nations. President Kennedy, in his speech inaugurating the Peace Corps, said something like: "Those who have so much will not be able to keep it if they are unwilling to share with those who have so little." In other words, we have to give it away, in order to keep it.

Genuine, national self examination would be a tribute to those who tragically died on 9/11. Perhaps we could prevent similar horrors in the future.