I’m rather conflicted by the whole 9/11 thing. Yes, I grieve for those lost. And the violence of the act was mind-numbingly senseless and evil. Yet, I refuse to give in to the mindless cheerleading type patriotism, jingoistic nonsense that the right has adopted. Their rush to destroy everything associated, however remotely, with the terrorists is counter-productive at best. At worst, retorting evil with evil is, well, feeding a mad cycle of destruction. Giving those who hate us “for our freedoms” other reasons to hate is just crazy.
I mourn the deaths of so many innocents to mindless hate. The deaths of the people just living their lives combined with the 343 deaths of firefighters “doing their duty” saddens me. It speaks to the danger of non-rational religiosity. A dangerous mind set beyond the Middle-East, joining us here in the West.