It’s been a long time, ya’ll.
With this blog, after my last post, I got stuck. Some of it writer’s
block, and some that I had issues that I wanted to write about but unsure of
how to approach them. I’m unsure of where I want to go with this blog—I have a
list of topics I want to approach. We shall see if I get there. It’s going to
be a mix—some tongue-in-cheek, some serious, and some fun.
For today, since it is September 11th, fifteen years after that
day of infamy, I feel that we all need to reexamine our place in our country. This
is a day where many of us can answer (and also never forget) exactly where we
were and what we were doing when we learned of the terrorist attacks that were
in process. One thing I remember about that day, too, is when the announcement
was made over the school intercom, I didn’t know what they were talking about
when they said that the World Trade Center had been attacked. I did know the nickname
given to those buildings, but I certainly didn’t understand the GRAVITY of this
attack and I don’t know if any of us really could anticipate where this would
take our country. By the time a lot of us got to a television, one tower had
already collapsed, and then we witnessed the other one do the same. Glass, steel, first
responders, workers, bystanders--so many lives in one instant. Everyone one of
us effected.
The thought that I feel that many Americans had that day: We
are not as invincible as we had grown accustomed and even taught to think. A
battle had been initiated on our own soil—it questioned our security and our infrastructure.
We are a huge, but young country, and we still have a lot to learn. In the
weeks and months after the attacks, as we mourned the lives lost, cleaned up
the rubble and started to rebuild, the patriotism suddenly bubbled over and
could be felt all over the world. And now, 15 years later, we continue to
struggle. Would we be here if we hadn’t been attacked and thrusted into a war?
Hard to say. Everything that has a weak or crumbling foundation eventually
falls. I’m not saying that we will fall as a country, but I do see where we
have room to improve in order to band together to be a stronger nation—and one
that is respected by other nations.
I feel we are in a bit of an impasse. I’m not saying we won’t
get through what we are going through as country--but over the past 8 years
with our current president, I have continued to observe an appalling disrespect
over race and gender. Over 50 years ago, African American citizens were given
the right to vote and have a say in our country, and almost 100 years for women.
Yet, the divide still exists. While we are not in the same state we were during
the Jim Crow Laws time, it is still amazing to me that we continue to have an
issue with race and respect in our supposedly “progressive” country. And, in
truth, I will never fully understand the race divide. I can’t possibly--because
I am a white, middle class, and suburban raised citizen. My upbringing places
me with an automatic set of blinders that while I constantly fight to take off,
I never fully can. I have married a wonderful man of Indian descent, with a Muslim
last name. We have two beautiful mix-raced children, who I fear will constantly
be forced to identify with one or the other race, rather than embracing their
true multi-cultural backgrounds and families. People still stare. People still
GLARE. I did not notice until my husband pointed out that people do, indeed, give
our family disapproving looks. Some people disrespect our President, not based on
his politics, but solely that he is a black man. And the statistics do not lie—the
jail sentence of white co-ed who raped an unconscious woman is a glaringly
revolting example of the divide that our country still continues to feed. We
are all citizens of this great country, but unfortunately, we are still not all
treated as equals.
So, this 9/11, I ask you to not only reflect on the lives
lost, the war we still continue to fight (and especially those who are fighting
while we are back at home), and your thankfulness to be alive. I invite you to
look outside your comfortable place, embrace those that are different from
yourself, and request that you look for ways to do and be better, and to also
stand-up for those who deserve better. Recognize your own views and opinions,
but also recognize that you don’t have the only right answers to our America’s
problems.
We are all humans. We all are made up of the same insides. We
are capable of reasoning, love, empathy, an understanding. Dig deep and open
your eyes. We can do better.
We need to be better.
