Thoughts After Having Rocks & Bricks Thrown At Me (1149 hits)
Category: PoliticsRating: 1.15 on 20 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by krissi (View user info) at 2005-07-15 14:34:32 EDT
I should preface this post with the fact that I wrote it a few years
ago. Well, four years ago. I've never showed it to anyone really, more
of a memoir for me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last summer my family was invited to the opening of a memorial garden
in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dedicated to those who had lost their
lives during thirty years of conflicts, the garden was set against the
"Peace Line", a thirty feet high wall that goes through the middle of
the city. Designed to keep peace between the unionists, who are
predominantly Protestant, and the nationalists, who are predominantly
Catholic, the wall is a monstrous, depressing and ineffective
structure.
As bagpipes played and children sang hymns, townspeople placed wreaths
against a plaque in the center of the garden. I felt conspicuously
lucky—a pampered, privileged, safe American teenager, more naïve than
I had realized. Those around me had only known poverty and struggle
all their lives. I admired these people; I could feel their open
affection for one another and their strong sense of community.
Then, just a few minutes into the ceremony, rocks, bottles and bricks
came raining down on the crowd of several hundred, from the other side
of the wall. What I witnessed next will live with me forever. The men,
women and children were holding their place, praying for their lost
loved ones and laying their wreaths in silence. Their eyes welled with
tears and many clenched their jaws in anger, yet they proceeded with
the ceremony, barely flinching as one after another was injured by the
projectiles. My instincts told me to run, as fast and far as I could,
but I was frozen in fear and awe. Their quiet dignity was inspiring
and I felt honored to stand there among them.
I remained silent, yet I wanted to scream to those on the other side
of the wall, "If only you knew these good people, if only you
understood them, if only you could see them the way I do, you would
never even dream of hurting them!" I wanted to show them that the
people they were attacking had the same simple aspirations of the
people the world over: a place where they can raise their families in
peace, harmony and freedom.
A year later, on September 11th, I felt the same terror I had felt
that day in Belfast. It had begun as an ordinary day. I went to
Physics and then, during a free period, I went to breakfast with my
(at the time) boyfriend Kenny. At the diner, Kenny and I chatted about
our schedules for the rest of the day. I still had math and English
ahead and he had to get to the New Jersey Institute of Technology
where he had recently enrolled. He talked about how unhappy he was
with his new roommate, a racist and drug abuser while I listened
sympathetically. On our way back to school, we listened to a CD Kenny
had made for me.
It was a beautiful sunny morning. Kenny drove me around the high
school a few times to delay our impending separation. We were in love,
or thought we were, and we barely noticed the rest of the world going
on around us. He dropped me off at the front door of the school. I
bounced out of the car, kissed him good-bye and told him that I loved
him.
I walked into my Family Living class a few minutes after the first
bell and just seconds before my friend, Jeana, came in looking dazed
and confused.
"I was just listening to Z100 on the radio in the car," she said.
"They're saying an airplane has hit the World Trade Center!"
I stared at her in disbelief. Should I believe what I was hearing? As
more people filtered into the classroom, she continued to tell the
story and she was bombarded with questions. Could this possibly be
true? Why would anyone do such a thing? Was it intentional or an
accident? I felt frightened and confused. Perhaps this was just a sick
and twisted joke on the part of the Z100 DJs.
The PA system went on shortly thereafter with an announcement that no
one was allowed to leave the building. We weren't told why and I began
to think that what Jeana was saying might be true. Fifteen minutes
into the period, another student walked into class and informed us
that an airplane had also crashed into the Pentagon. He added that
there was speculation that two other airplanes, still in the air, had
been hijacked. I was stunned and kept thinking that this could not be
happening. Who would be insane enough and cruel enough to do such a
thing?
After I left class, I saw my brother, Denny, in the hallway. I love
Denny but we aren't close so when I ran up to him, told him that I
loved him and gave him a big hug, he looked at me strangely, as if to
say, "What got into you?" Together we called my mother and told her we
wanted to come home. She made arrangements with the Dean of Students
and Kenny drove us home.
We have always lived in New Jersey and from some sections of my town
we can see the New York Skyline. As Kenny drove us home that day, we
could see the smoke billowing on the horizon. That image sent the
truth of the morning's events down my spine like a cold hand. There
could be no more denying the horror.
I walked in my front door and immediately cried into my mother's
shoulder. For hours on end we watched the powerful images on
television which confirmed all the reports we had heard. The airplanes
flying directly into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center appeared
to me like a scene from the movie "Independence Day." My heart ached
along with the rest of America for all the victims of the terrorist
attacks and their families. I knew instinctively that we were all
forever changed.
These two events, although so different in scale, had similar impacts
on me and taught me an important lesson. I learned that the enemy is
not just an unknown face from Kabul or Belfast. The enemy is
ignorance, fear, and intolerance of a diversity of viewpoints. It is
inflexible idealism and the compulsion to categorize as enemies those
who do not fit a preconceived model of what is "right". It is the need
to inflict terrible suffering or complete destruction upon those
perceived enemies. We are all responsible for dismantling this
mentality. People need to understand not only ideas, but also
themselves, and each other. We must open our minds and develop a sense
of the possible, together.
User Reviews
Submitted by CookieLass (user info) at 2005-07-25 13:41:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I agree with goose and interject something that doesn't ring true for me: Irish playing bagpipes at a dedication ceremony? Bagpipes are Scottish tradition. Irish have bagpipes, but they are hard to find and cumbersome to play as they have double-bladders to force the air. You can't play them standing because you'll drop them. You have to rest them against your leg. Here is a picture of an irish bagpipe, taken apart. http://www.dudelsack.at/dudelsack_shop/irischer_dudelsack/img/irish_bagpipe.jpg
Submitted by alragusa (user info) at 2005-07-18 12:37:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Meh.
You want the "viewpoint" of terrorists? Here it is - "I hate you because you are different from me. Die!"
What do we do now Missy? Hold hands and sing Kumbaya? I have an idea - let's nuke the Mid-East, bring the troops hope and get our shit together here. We need better education, less inflation and more privacy.
Now, let's all say together...
"I will NOT adhere to a political party or ideology. I will act in the best interest of the U.S. F'N A."
Thank you.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-07-16 01:41:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Goose. I see your point, but I don't think that Krissi is crying about how she had it so tough at 9/11. Though maybe her feelings 'don't matter' as much as those people who were more closely involved in the tragedy, it doesn't mean that her feelings DON'T MATTER. You should feel lucky that there are people like krissi who are sympathetic and mournful of the lost lives of their fellow Americans. You should feel good that she cares.
Basically what I got out of what you said was, "You weren't there so stop being so moved by the fact that thousands of people died." Grief does not follow an elitist social heirarchy.
Submitted by RandytheHelpfulPineapple (user info) at 2005-07-15 17:38:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I was in 3rd period when my History teacher announced to us that the World Trade Center had an airplane crash into it. Several people laughed.
We were forced to stay there the whole day. Some kids had parents in the air at the time, some in New York. There was a weird aura about the school for the rest of the day. It didn't hit me until I saw the images, over and over and over on CNN.
Submitted by forensicgirl3 (user info) at 2005-07-15 17:11:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2005-07-15 16:57:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
meh. ok.
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2005-07-15 16:41:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
thats good.
i remember waking up, turning on the tv, and just standing there, staring, for hours.
Submitted by Totally_useless (user info) at 2005-07-15 16:04:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I was on 208 South when it happened. I was listening to Howard Stern when he cut short to make the announcement that the WTC had been attacked and that, no, this was not a joke. Traffic stopped suddenly as we approached a spot in the highway where you could see the skyline. The towers weren't in direct view, but the smoke was definitely visible. By the time I got to Hackensack for work, I was shaking uncontrollably. I got there at 10:30 and went to the roof above the 6th floor of my building. Many people spent most of the day up there, simply staring at the scene from 10 miles out, jaws agape, heads shaking in disbelief.
I guess this was like the 'Where were you when JFK was shot' of my time.
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2005-07-15 15:30:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-07-15 15:25:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
FREE DERRY MUTHAFUCKAS
Submitted by goose (user info) at 2005-07-15 15:18:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
"If only you knew these good people, if only you understood them, if only you could see them the way I do, you would never even dream of hurting them!"
My family is from Ireland, and most of my family is highly nationalistic - there was actually a period of time when mant in my family wouldn't speak to my father because he married a Protestant. My uncles tell stories of being members of the IRA and, thought spoken about only on long nights after a few too many pints, the pIRA. Stories about family member being abducted and beaten, about being arrested and jailed for years with no trial, about having weddings and funerals being interrupted by the Belfast authorities to take people away. Granted, this was a long time ago, but it helps prove my point - seeing how the other side lives doesn't help, because you can't help but remember former offences. Its tough to find the starting point (think the present Israel-Palestine situation), and even tougher for people to forget the past.
I'm not sure what to say about your 9-11 story, other than to say that I'm tired of hearing people whine about it. Did you loose family members in the collapse of the towers? If you did, then I'm very sorry to hear that, and I send you and your family my condolences. Didn't loose anybody? Then shut the fuck up. I was part of the Red Cross team that responded to the site, and the people who were there, the actual victims of the attack, the people who were looking frantically for loved one through the streets of the city, the crowds who were studying the pictures of people who were missing in the hopes that they might recognize someone in the street and send them home - they can mourn. Their experience is demeaned by people with no connection to the situation claiming PTSD and a host of other "illnesses", who think that we should be concerned with the attitudes of the people in Podunk, Arkansas, that their impressions of the situation somehow matter as much as those who were part of it.
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2005-07-15 15:16:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I got a little teary reading this. It took me back to how I felt when I heard the news on 9/11.
Submitted by Fartman (user info) at 2005-07-15 15:04:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The enemy is ignorance, fear, and intolerance of a diversity of viewpoints.
-----------------------
I don't know what the hell you're talking about. People like you scare me, and I'm not gonna listen to any more of your propagandistic bullshit!
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-07-15 14:59:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I feel for the victims of 9/11. It really sucks. But the truth is shitloads of people die everyday and they don't even get as much of a nod. Hell our papers won't even publsih the names of the soldiers who die in Iraq each day.
That's bullshit
Fuck 9/11 it's over.
These people aren't martyrs of the greatest tragedy that ever happened. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Submitted by queen_of_the_djel (user info) at 2005-07-15 14:58:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I was going to give this a +1 but the last paragraph is so spot on. So many people go on about terrorist attacks and things like that but hardly anyone points out the real solution, we all have the ability to contribute to disarming the harmful mindsets around us:
"The enemy is ignorance, fear, and intolerance of a diversity of viewpoints"
Everyone has prejudices of some kind. Even down to something as seemingly harmless as me being annoyed by, and complaining about, a teenage girl just because she was acting her age and being silly. If we can shrug off these small intolerances then it's a step towards the big issues.
Submitted by HadToBeDone (user info) at 2005-07-15 14:45:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
So will it be at 5 years? 10 years? How long till you people stop posting your September 11 stories?
Yeah, it was traumatic. No, we aren't likely to forget anytime soon.
Get off my front page.
Submitted by Mike00295 (user info) at 2005-07-15 14:44:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Grá na fírinne
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2005-07-15 14:42:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
http://www.despair.com/bitterness.html
Something to share with idealists everywhere.
Submitted by Mr-Boo (user info) at 2005-07-15 14:41:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You are going to feel alot of heat for this.
I liked it though. I think Bart should put it on B@W.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-07-15 14:41:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
The first firt was kind of cool, but the second part makes me want to buy the world a Coke.