We humans almost always have five fingers on each of two hands. As a
result, base ten is the numeral
system chosen by most modern civilizations (Chinese, Roman, Brahmi-Hindu, and our
own adopted Arabic, for example). We are therefore accustomed to assigning
significance to groupings in multiples of five and ten. We are culturally –
indeed, biologically – predisposed to
see a 10th anniversary as more significant than a seventh or 11th
for no other reason beyond our anatomy. Biology then dictates that this
year is a particular time to look back and reflect on an historic, shocking series
of events and their aftermath. So be it.
As a pastor, it is sometimes my job to prayerfully reflect
and comment on things plaguing us en masse spiritually and psychologically…
even physically. This is the case for the 10th anniversary of the
9-11 attacks. I felt I couldn’t do so with integrity without first re-opening
the wound and reliving the horror of that day. I have just spent the past hour watching the twin
towers get hit, listening to 911 and airline dispatch recordings of the last
moments of some who would perish that tragic day, the FAA recordings of calls
between air-traffic controllers, airline and government officials, and Betty
Ong (a brave, frightened stewardess on American Flight 11), and the
still-tearful remembrances of a young man who was in his first days of
kindergarten the day he lost his grandpa, and a father who lost two sons: a firefighter and a cop.
My initial reaction are as follows:
POLITICAL
- To all my progressive friends: Watch footage of
people hanging out of the burning WTC and jumping to their deaths, then tell me
if it is appropriate to label tea-party activists and their representatives terrorists, even as a “rhetorical
device.”
- To all my conservative friends: Listen to
Mohammad Atta’s cold, condescending voice from the cockpit of American Flight 11,
and then tell me if even the most obnoxious liberals really hate America.
With much of our initial response in the hands of ordinary
citizens, fear, hubris, violence and bureaucratic ineptitude did not rule the
day on September 11, 2001, Neither should they now. It’s all bread and
circuses, my friends, in combination with Orwellian reports of
double-plus-ungood happenings on all the faceless fronts around the world. Our
whole political system and our major media are fueled by fear and hubris.
Figures, since they’re both owned and operated by the same lot.
But please don’t accuse me of government bashing, as a good
number of those who died that day ten fingers ago were government employees.
Their actions were self-less, expert and performed without flinching. God bless
the Civil Servants! It's all over without them.
HUMANITARIAN
Because we have five fingers on each of two hands, a
broadcasting corporation recently thought it would be a good idea to ask
Afghanis for their thoughts on the approaching 10th anniversary of
the September 11th attacks. To their shock, they found that 90% of
Aghan citizens apparently had no knowledge of the attacks, and, when shown
footage of the fiery WTC collapse, many mistakenly guessed it was happening in Kabul. In other words, the list of innocent victims of 9-11 continues to
grow by the tens of thousands. On this, our 10-finger anniversary of 3000
innocent deaths, why do we not feel the same or even greater horror when we
consider the six-figure-and-counting death toll of innocent Iraqis, Afghanis and
Pakistanis killed through our ongoing massive, sledge-hammer response to 9-11?
If that question angers you, try to think of these people as
human beings, not simply foreigners (they aren't, as they are in their own countries) or “collateral damage” (relegating their right to life as inferior to our "security and strategic interests"). Our representative democracy has visited hell on millions
of innocent human beings. We are accountable.
RELIGIOUS
Crackpots will use any tool they can find to wreak their
havoc. I sure do wish they’d leave
off religion for a while. Our churches, synagogues, temples and mosques are
frequented mostly by people with good heads on their shoulders and the best of
intentions in their hearts. Sadly, that in turn attracts both the desperately mindless, and the nasty people with anti-christ complexes, too.
A few of the nasties are adept at attracting the gullible and desperate, pushing
buttons and tripping wires, leading to the carnage-inducing freak-parade we
have suffered through these past few thousand years. God weeps.
“Remember. Reflect. Revive.” Is the theme of our church’s
Rally Day program this Sunday. We will be following these three Rs for a lot
more than the ten-finger anniversary of a brutal terrorist attack. We will also
be remembering
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our duty to cultivate and educate our minds as
we confirm several youths into our church,
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our gifts from God when we sing a ridiculous
number of wonderful songs on Sunday, including my personal favorite hymn of
national life: O God of Every Nation,
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our obligation to seek and embrace the hard,
unvarnished truth when we preach, teach and converse about these issues,
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our responsibility as compassionate Christians
when we send our folks out into the world to love it back into shape.
You’re welcome to join us if you find yourself in the area
Sunday morning. Beyond that, I would suggest the best antidote to violent
zealotry is to pick up and read the holy books for yourself. Even better, find
some other folks and look through them together.
As always, I invite your feedback on this post. In this
case, I’d like to focus it a bit with two simple questions:
Where were you as 9-11 unfolded?
Where are you now as a result?
