I wrote this post for my students and then thought that it might be too political, so perhaps I need to keep my opinion to myself.
Greetings Students:
Sept. 11, 2001. Some of you weren't born yet. Others were so young, you watched your parents' faces to understand the magnitude of this major attack, not on American people, per se, but on what this "first nation" stands for. How dare another nation or people try to take down the greatest nation in the world?! And so began the posturing and xenophobia against people who dressed like Arabs or Muslims from Arabia.
Clueless? It's probably time to watch Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) again -- just for perspective.
My mother said my generation were shocked, because we'd never experienced war on American soil. Born in the early '40s, my mom had rehearsed what to do if attacked by another nation. There were blackouts and bomb shelters people would practice sheltering in just in case a raid happened.
There are so many stories of brave citizens who saved others and lost their lives Sept. 11 along with firefighters and other first respondents who survived yet now live with illnesses acquired while working in the toxic debris and chemicals released after the crashes.
Mosques were bombed and women and men were cautioned against wearing their traditional attire less someone attack them.
George W. Bush started the war against Afghanistan and Iraq and brutally killed its president Sadam Hussein, an ally, and countless civilians-- men, women and children. He publicly decapitated him. It was gruesome and barbaric and like the towers being hit by the planes and falling was on instant replay for months, so was this leader's killing. Bush tried unsuccessfully to find Osama bin Laden; however, his successor, President Obama did and with gusto gave the command and the Navy Seals shot him and then buried him at sea.
Since there is no body, I am not a believer. Bin Laden could still be free.
I think prisoners of war are still in Cuba at Guantanamo Bay. Some of you might remember the scrutiny armed forces came under for its use of torture on captives there.
Some of the changes to American Civil Liberties affected our privacy, losses we never regained. With the passage of USA Patriot Act 1 and 2, the government is now able to use surveillance techniques formerly illegal without due cause if it feels a person is a threat. This pertains to children too.
Our phones can be tapped and our homes searched without warrants or even our presence. There was a story of children at Oakland High questioned without their parents by the FBI because a teacher felt a classroom discussion was seditious and called the bureau. Those children, one from an immigrant family dropped out of school. He was that frightened and his parents, who didn't speak English well, were also intimidated.
The Weapons of Mass Destruction were a hoist. Such arsenal were never found. The war one of oil and power dynamics rather than any real threat against this nation. There we were and here we are now almost 20 years later in the same place once again.
While we stacked the deck against all people and nations who claimed Islam as a faith, at home a major hurricane, Katrina, flooded all of the south from Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia to Florida; however, the City of New Orleans became the poster child for the storm, not for the storm, but for the breached levees and the subsequent neglect and suffering and killing of innocent NOLA residents by white vigilantes with rifles and guns patrolling bridge and roads and not letting people on foot flee the waters climbing steadily higher. Armed civilians and police told evacuees to turn back and those who did not, were shot and killed. President Bush and the federal government let hundreds, thousands of people die through inaction when aid was refused from abroad which could have saved so many.
There was a memorial placed at the bridge August 29, this year, where so many people were shot and killed. What happened in New Orleans was so bad, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney called for a tribunal to gather the stories for Congressional Record. I don't know if any families or individuals were compensated, but it helps that a record was made and the stories captured, because the same thing happened and is happening in Lake Charles where Hurricane Laura knocked out electricity and water for the majority of the citizens.
Many people cried conspiracy when 9/11 happened. Those folks said it was an inside job. The skyline is forever changed in New York-- no more World Trade Center. We have our "Where were you. . . " stories."
I was at Laney College that morning teaching an English 201 class that started at 7:30 a.m. We huddled around the phone and listened as the planes crashed in DC into the Pentagon building. My neighbor was supposed to be on that flight, but she called in sick and someone else covered for her.
Next year will be the 20th Anniversary. 2001 marked the end of my column in the Oakland Tribune. I'd had a column, Good News, for three years.
From Weapons of Mass Destruction to targeting people based on their religion to seeing how unfair and unjust this is, to starting this trend all over again with the new administration.
9/11 traumatized a nation, and Covid-19 is another collective trauma. What do you think? How are you coping? Jack Saul, psychologist who specializes in trauma response, speaks about his work and collective healing.
In the clip here, the two therapists talk about rituals and how they help people cope with loss and the grief that comes with death and dying. This nation is certainly mourning, so many people have died, are dying and will die.
