Ten Years Later

I’ve never written about the events of 9/11 but today, on the 10^th anniversary of that horrible day, I think I finally have something to offer.  I am reflecting on the conversations I had as a child with my Grandmother.  During her life she saw the advent of the telephone, airplane, and for time during her youth the world seemed good and safe.  She and her friends would dress in short skirts and dance on the weekends and type away in steno pools during the week.  She eventually married and had a family but she never lost the excitement and wonder of the world and what could be.  My Grandmother also saw that world come apart during World War II.  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed the American way of life and direction for the next fifty plus years.  The world shrank again and people fell into the old ways of aligning themselves by nationality and race.  It was ok to hate other people and the media reminded us of who to hate and why.  It took generations for these ideas to begin to fade.  That was until the morning of September 11, 2001 when a few bad men threw the world once again into utter chaos.

I am old enough to remember the words used to describe our WWII enemies from the movies and comics of that time.  Old movies appeared on TV regularly and old comics were easily had from flea markets and garage sales.  These weren’t nice words so I won’t repeat them today, my point being that we often react in the worst ways to events that make us feel small or powerless.  Fast forward to my generation with men on the moon, cell phones, and the internet once again making the world smaller and better connected.  In 2000 cheap and easy travel was the norm and increased immigration into the US from all points of the globe had me feeling the wonder my Grandmother must have felt as a young woman in NYC during the 1920’s.  It’s taken ten years for me to realize the loss of that wonder and optimism.  I’ve seen the rise of partisan media, the return of hate language, and finally the loss of personal freedom.  It has been a steady path through two wars and lots of protests.  These have been little changes that alone seemed benign but now have a cumulative impact that touches my everyday life. 

I think about how to eventually explain all this to my little girl.  I think about her life and I hope that by the time she reaches adulthood the world is once again moving towards openness and, dare I say, love.  Maybe it’s because I live in San Francisco where people can be themselves and ideas of all types are tolerated that I feel this way.  Maybe there's a little hippie in my DNA.  Even if, today in SF adults without children are not allowed in parks near children and public behavior on buses often gets racial and violent.  Is the world so out of control that the only way people can deal is to act singularly?  “It’s my world and I can control it so f**k everyone else.”  Why else would so many text on their phones while driving, trample others in line to get themselves a cheap tv, or celebrate the lives of Jersey Shore jerk wads?  It’s all about the individual and the rest of the world can just deal with it.

More and more of our lives are controlled by security and verifications of all sorts.  I have lived firsthand the changes at airports and recently my own bank use the term "Patriot Act" to explain their excessive documentation requirements as I dared to cash a check from my account in person at the actual bank.  In the sky rude and gruff flight attendants use the term “Federal Law requires…” as they tell you to pee your pants in an overcrowded coach cabin.  Even the street fairs in San Francisco have metal detectors at their entrances.  The internet that once seemed so promising is now used to bully, swindle, and self promote more than anything else.  The media is just that media.  There is no more real news, only opinion and bluster.  Compromise is lost since no disagreement is ever resolved or over.  It’s just carried on until the winds of change blow back. 

The winds changed during my Grandmother’s life as the enemies of the war became our partners in building the future I grew up in.  She saw the men on the moon and she also saw the excitement in her grandchildren’s eyes as the world once again offered a bright future.  It is my hope we never forget the day or people who were directly hurt but that we also remember it was only a few bad men who decided that their individual feelings and ideals trumped everyone else’s.  This is the danger but it is also the answer.  If everyone at least considered the community and acted as part of a community the world could once again offer opportunity and understanding.  I can see through the storm can you?

That’s my story today September 11, 2011.

Peace and Leftcoastlove