On the 7th Anniversary
I debated posting something today.
All morning – all across the country and the world – the memory of that horrific day and everyone who was affected by it has been honored with a moment of silence. A silence that is meant to be a show of respect to the memory of an event that eternally changed our lives, our country, and the world.
I debated posting something today, because I don’t want to defile that memory.
But the more I thought about it, the more I felt this is the time to talk. This is the time to stand up and let our voices be heard. There has been too much silence in the past seven years. Too much tiptoeing around the issues. Too much recollection about an event that changed the world – and not enough action.
It is time for the silence to end. And for change to begin.
If you want to honor the people who died that day, the people who fought for the lives of others that day, the people all over the world who sat glued to their television sets wondering what they could do to help. If you want to honor the heroes who shone bright as they rushed into collapsing buildings, and the heroes who have shone since as they went off to fight in wars to protect our country. If you want to honor America.
Be silent no more.
Take a lesson from those whom we remember and do something. Anything. Register to vote. Learn about the political viewpoints that are going to affect us in the coming election. Take a stance. Stop living in the comfortable silence we have constructed for ourselves and find your voice.
If the people we remember as heroes today had sat silent 7 years ago, what would we be remembering with silence today?
Polly Ticks: a snarky look at the happenings in the world today entangled in female perception, appears right here at iconoclastic
Have a great blog idea, or just want to chat with me about something I’ve said? Feel free to e-mail me: meagandixon@yahoo.com
Comments
"Take a stance. Stop living in the comfortable silence we have constructed for ourselves and find your voice".....
Wise words my friend. one of your best blogs.
Posted by: JM | September 11, 2008 11:54 AM
Meagan, Very well said! We also all need to do what we can to prevent what happened that awful day from happening again. In addition to registering to vote, it's important for everyone to learn about the issues and to not ever again elect leaders like Bush or McCain who will take us to fight unnecessary wars like Iraq, that benefit oil and other corporations. We need to demand that Congress and the President stop our unconditional support of Israel, while that country continues to take land from Palestinians and builds settlements. We need to realize that our government's policies make enemies for our country, and it is these polices that are the main reasons for the 9/11 attacks on our country. If we change these policies while at the same time cooperate with other countries using the proper police methods to round up terrorists and break-up terrorist cells, we will be more secure. We won't have to go through security checkpoints at our airports, be searched, and have to take off our shoes.
Posted by: Walter Ballin | September 11, 2008 12:35 PM
"We suffer in our remembrance of 9/11, because of the terrible loss of innocent lives on that grim day. We also suffer because 9/11 was seized as an opportunity to run a political agenda, which has set America on a course of the destruction of another nation and the destruction of our own Constitution. And we have become less secure as a result of the warped practice of pursing peace through the exercise of pre-emptive military strength.
It is not simply 9/11 that needs to be remembered. We also need to remember the politicization of 9/11 and the polarizing narrative which followed, locking us into endless conflict, a war on terror which has wrought further terror worldwide and which has severely damaged our standing worldwide as an honorable, compassionate nation. As we were all victims of 9/11, so we have become victims of the interpretation of 9/11.
...
The truth can move us forward, as a unified whole, so that we can one day become a re-United States. 9/11 is the day the world changed. It is the day America embraced a metaphor of war. If we are open to truth and reconciliation, we may one day be able, once again, to embrace peace."
from AlterNet
Posted by: meagan | September 15, 2008 10:45 AM